Powers of Love
by WitchHatsFTW
Summary: Having discovered the time loop entrapping humanity, Some of Nanamori's students find themselves in the middle of a conflict between the Resistance and mysterious enemies known as the "Blacksabres". As they learn how to fight this new threat, they soon discover that the greatest power of all is the one they had all along: Love. Sequel Story to "Motions Of Love". On Temporary Hiatus
1. Episode 1: Nana's Old Friends Arrive!

**This is a sequel story to Motions of Love. Please read that story before reading this one, as it sets up the relationships and plot for this story.**

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_**Disclaimer: I do not own YuruYuri or any associated characters. The original characters that appear in this story are of my own creation.**_

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**Episode 1: Nana's Old Friends Arrive! Save Us~!**

As Kyouko watched the three "Bladebots" move around the larger "Blacksabre", she felt an overwhelming sense of excitement.

"T-t-this is like an anime! This is something right out of an anime!" She yelled, sparkles in her eyes.

"Baka! Don't be excited about this!" Yui scolded, "That thing was really about to kill us just now!"

Kyouko smiled, "Don't worry, the good guys always win!"

"THIS ISN'T AN ANIME, DUMBASS!" Yui yelled in rebuttal.

Ayano was silent, and had been clutching onto Kyouko's arm for dear life as she looked up and watched the battle. She was utterly and completely petrified from everything that had just transpired.

In the back of their minds, they figured they should at least try to help Chitose, but none of them could peel their eyes away from the battle long enough to actually do so.

At the moment, it didn't look like anyone was winning. Lobos, as Tetsuya had called their new enemy, had taken some minor damage, but for the most part was unscathed. The Bladebots hadn't been hit yet, but they seemed more focused on dodging the barrage of swipes instead of actually retaliating.

It was at this point that Yui realized Nana probably had more information about what was going on than the four of them combined.

Without taking her eyes off the battle, Yui voiced her confusion, "Nishigaka-sensei… what's going on?"

Nana shrugged, "I don't know much about it either, but from what I've gathered, apparently the entirety of humanity has been trapped in a time loop for the past three years. The Blacksabres are agents of an unknown origin that are sent out to eliminate any humans who learn the truth about their temporal imprisonment. It appears that Tetsuya and some of my other college friends are members of some sort of resistance, and use these 'Bladebot' things to fight the Blacksabres. This is the first I've ever seen of them, though, so really, you'll have to ask Tetsuya about it later."

Yui nodded, still not entirely satisfied, but feeling much more enlightened than before.

Tetsuya's Bladebot charged forwards and slashed at Lobos with its katana, sparks of electricity crackling from it's surface. Lobos retaliated with a harsh swipe, knocking Tetsuya's bladebot sideways into the "spikey wooden fence thing" Kyouko pointed out earlier.

Fortunately, metal is much stronger than wood. The fence didn't stand a chance.

"See, maybe that fall wouldn't kill you!" Kyouko pointed out.

"You're not made of metal, baka..." Yui deadpanned.

The dark green Bladebot spoke up in a female voice, "Ah! Tetsuya, you okay?"

Nana seemed to recognize that voice too, "Ah, so that one's Miraisei's!"

Kyouko tilted her head, "M-Miraisei?"

Nana nodded, "Another one of my college friends, she was the president of our university's Science Club, she's Tetsuya's older sister."

Yui looked at her with a blank expression, "It doesn't surprise me that you went and joined a club like that, Nishigaka-sensei."

Tetsuya's Bladebot jumped to it's feet and used it's large arms to regain balance, "I'm fine!"

"YOU HAVE NO CHANCE OF WINNING! EVEN WITH THREE OF YOU!" Lobos replied,

Miraisei's Bladebot turned to look at Lobos, "You haven't even seen half of what we're capable of! TETSUYA! Get ready, it's time to use that!"

"Alright!" Tetsuya shouted back.

The two Bladebots headed near each other, and Tetsuya's grey Bladebot jumped up into the air. It's legs folded up and it's arms extended even further, the bottom opened up, revealing some sort of docking port. Miraisei's dark green Bladebot tucked away it's small arms, extended it's legs, and it's head changed shape until it looked like it would fit inside the docking port of the bottom of Tetsuya's mech.

"Bladebot SYNC!" The two shouted as the two mechs combined. The disproportioned arms and legs on both Bladebots were perfectly proportioned to the combined form, and the giant sword Tetsuya's Bladebot held was no longer ridiculously oversized. Now the combined Bladebot stood about as tall as the enemy Blacksabre.

"Behold, the true power of the Bladebots!" Miraisei yelled out.

"THEY COMBINED, THEY COMBINED! THAT'S SO AWESOME!" Kyouko yelled, her eyes wide and sparkling in amazement as she jumped up and down.

"T-Toshino Kyouko!" Ayano yelled, "P-please settle down!"

Nana let out an impressed whistle, "They had something like that up their sleeves the whole time, huh?"

"We've got a 95% Sync!" Tetsuya exclaimed, "That's the highest it's been so far!"

The two charged forwards with amazing speed, and Lobos couldn't react fast enough. Before the Blacksabre knew it, his right arm had been completely sliced off, and the combined Bladebot was crouching down, sword readied for an upward slash.

"I-IMPOSSIBLE, WHERE DID YOU GET THIS SPEED?"

As it slashed upwards into the Blacksabre, slicing the mech clean open, A small pod ejected from near the head of the beastly robot, and from the pod, the angry voice of Lobos yelled, "DAMN YOU! TETSUYA! I SWEAR I'LL DEFEAT YOU ONE DAY!"

As the pod disappeared, the giant metal beast began dissolving into nothingness, and everyone not in a mech widened their eyes.

The combined Bladebot separated, and all three Bladebots landed in front of the six on the ground. The cockpits opened one by one and out hopped their respective pilots.

Tetsuya hopped out of the first one. His long, black hair was tied back into a low ponytail, and was considerably neater than the last time Nana had seen him. He wore a grey t-shirt, black jeans, running shoes, and a long labcoat with the sleeves rolled up. The tiredness was also gone from his eyes, replaced with a fiery amber gaze.

"My name's Ozu Tetsuya! It's nice to meet you!"

A woman with somewhat short, spiky black hair jumped out of the dark green Bladebot, and even though Miraisei was unfamiliar to everyone but Nana, they could all see the family resemblance. She had the same fiery amber eyes as her younger brother. She was wearing a dark green tank top and a pair of denim hot-pants, as well as black thigh-high socks and combat boots.

"I'm the great Ozu Miraisei, kickass leader of the Resistance!"

To Ayano's chagrin, Kyouko had noticed the woman's rather respectably-sized assets, and the latter received a slap upside the head from the former, "Just where do you think you're looking!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Kyouko replied hastily.

The light blue mech lowered it's head to the ground so the pilot could gently step out of the cockpit instead of jumping. As she did, everyone's eyes widened.

She was, to put it bluntly, stunningly beautiful. Her silver hair was long and straight, a black rose pinned onto one side right above her ear, and her eyes were a dazzling emerald color. She held an air of elegance about her, despite the fact that she was merely dressed in a light blue hoodie, a white pleated skirt, and blue sandals, and she gave a sweet smile when she waved to everyone.

"I'm Takasu Haru! It's a pleasure to meet you, please treat me well." She introduced herself, bowing.

Nana was even more surprised than the students, "H-H-Haru?!"

Haru's eyes shot open at the sound of Nana's voice and her face quickly turned red, "A-ah, Na-Nana-san! Y-you were here?"

Nana nodded, unsure of how to approach the situation, all things considered, "Y-yeah…"

Tetsuya stepped forwards, "You guys probably have a lot of questions. If you'd like, you may accompany us back to our base so we may explain the situation in a more comfortable environment."

They all nodded, Yui picked up Chitose, and the three pilots got back into their Bladebots. Tetsuya and Haru's Bladbots lowered their hands, and Nana nodded. She and Rise climbed up the arms of Haru's Bladebot, and Kyouko, Ayano, and Yui, with Chitose on her back, climbed up onto Tetsuya's grey Bladebot.

"Alright, Let's go, da ze!" Miraisei yelled out from inside her own Bladebot.

The three Bladebots set off quickly, and Kyouko smiled, feeling the wind in her hair. Ayano did not hold the same sentiments, being afraid that she might fall off. Yui was focusing on keeping both Chitose and herself secured to the top of the Bladebot as it zoomed off towards their unknown destination.

Kyouko was daring enough to stand up, arms crossed and a huge grin on her face. She could see the setting sun straight on, view unobstructed by the tall temples of Kyoto.

"Hey, Ayano, Yui…"

They both looked up at her in anticipation.

"This doesn't change anything, you know!"

Ayano's eyes widened, "What do you mean? This changes everything!"

Kyouko smiled, shaking her head, "That's not what I meant! I mean, this doesn't change us. Yeah, so we've been trapped in a time-loop for the past three years! Yeah, there's giant mechanical beasts that want us dead because we know that…. But that's not what I meant! What won't change is our hearts. Ayano, I love you so much, and Yui, you've been a great friend for as long as I can remember! As long as that stays the same... As long as we remember who's important to us, it shouldn't matter what our lives are like, as long as we're all together! Right?"

Ayano stood up too, shakily at first, but then found her footing and nodded, standing next to Kyouko with their hands entwined.

"Right!" she smiled.

Yui sighed, but pulled herself to her feet as well, still supporting Chitose, "Right!"

As the three stood, watching the sunset, they wondered what exactly what was in store for them.

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**AN: Well, here you guys are! I really don't have much to say about this, but I will say that the next chapter will help explain a bit more about the Bladebots and introduce an important mechanic that will become a driving plot point for the rest of the story. **

**Hoped you guys enjoyed it!**


	2. Episode 2: The Emotion Drive

_**Disclaimer: I do not own YuruYuri or any associated characters. The original characters that appear in this story are of my own creation.**_

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**Episode 2: The Power Source of the Bladebots - The Emotion Drive Revealed!**

"YOU FOOL? WHY DO YOU RESIST OUR MIGHT, YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY WIN!"

Himawari clutched Sakurako's hand tighter at the booming voice of the giant black beast.

The nurse sighed, "My, my, you don't understand. These students are my explicit responsibility, I won't let you lay a finger on them!"

"HMMMPH, FOOLISH HUMAN. I'LL HAVE TO BLAST YOU AS WELL, THEN!"

The black robot pointed it's gun at the nurse, and she raised one of her mech's arms. An energy shield was projected from it, and she prepared to deflect the blast of energy that was charging in the cannon.

As it fired however, the nurse was surprised by the strength of the blast coming at her. Even as she increased the intensity of the energy shield, her mech was still blown backwards up against the wall of the hospital. She broke some windows and cracked the wall, but she had slowed down enough that she didn't go flying into it.

Himawari gazed out of the now broken window in terror. Could the nurse really win a battle like this?

"My, my… So…" the nurse said, her mech getting up, "This is the power of the new Blacksabres, huh?"

"YOUR PUNY BLADEBOT STANDS NO CHANCE AGAINST MY AWESOME POWER! STAND DOWN!"

"I'm sorry, did you think the Blacksabres were the only ones to get upgrades?" the nurse asked.

The white Bladebot transformed, as if it was ready to perform a sync, yet there wasn't another Bladebot in sight.

As the nurse hovered there, seemingly less mobile than before, the Blacksabre laughed. "WHAT THE HELL? AM I SUPPOSED TO BE INTIMIDATED BY THAT?"

"My, my, you don't understand much, do you, armadillo-boy?" the nurse taunted, "The docking port here normally allows energy to flow directly from the main engine of the mech to any mech it's combined with… however…"

The nurse's Bladebot planted itself firmly on the ground, aiming the docking port upwards. The port was glowing with bright red energy, and the Blacksabre figured out was going on a moment too late.

"Without being docked, I can use the docking port to discharge a large amount of energy quickly."

"W-WHAT! NO! WAIT!"

A powerful beam of energy shot out of the bottom of the nurse's Bladebot and burned a hole clear through the Blacksabre.

As the giant black mech hunched over, a small pod ejected from the top of it before the entire mech exploded. However, before the pieces could land on anything or hurt people, they quickly dissolved away, leaving both Sakurako and Himawari confused and terrified.

The nurse's Bladebot crashed roughly into the ground and she hopped out of the cockpit, giving it an irritated look.

"Damn, that always drains the power like that!"

Her eyes suddenly widened, as if she remembered that Himawari and Sakurako were watching her, and she whirled around quickly, bowing in the process.

"School Nurse Takashi Hatate, ensuring the safety and well-being of two of her school's beloved students! I urge you two to come with me! I have a lot to explain!"

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To say Akaza Akari was confused would be a glorious understatement.

She was standing next to Chinatsu and watching two mechs, who were being piloted by her sister Akane, and her girlfriend's sister Tomoko, fight a giant black mantis robot who wanted to kidnap the two of them.

"WHY DO YOU CHOOSE TO RESIST US, RESISTANCE? YOU CAN'T HIDE FOREVER!"

The loud voice startled Akari, and she shrunk back a bit. Chinatsu grabbed her hand and smiled reassuringly.

"Have a bit of faith in our sisters, Akari!" Chinatsu spoke, though Akari could hear the fear in her voice, and her hand was trembling a bit. They both looked back up and watched the battle unfold.

"Humanity should not be imprisoned!" Tomoko stated, giving one of the mantis legs a fierce kick. It simply swiped her away with one of its scythe arms and continued to focus on Akane, who was firing at it with an arm-mounted gatling gun.

"FOOLS, DO YOU REALLY INTEND TO WIN WITH SUCH WEAK ATTACKS? YOU WILL NEVER SCRATCH THE ARMOR OF A GREAT BLACKSABRE WITH YOUR WEAK BLADEBOTS!"

Tomoko frowned, "Akane-san, I think we'll have to do combine if we want to have any chance at defeating this thing!"

Akane's Bladebot charged forwards, unleashing a spray of gunfire at the Blacksabre with little effect, "No! We have to be able to take this thing separately!"

Tomoko frowned inside her Bladebot, "A-Akane-san…"

The Blacksabre swatted Akane's Bladebot away as effortlessly as it had knocked away Tomoko, yet Akane was being relentless.

"Come on, Tomoko! We can take this thing if we both hit at the same time, right?" Akane yelled.

"Akane-san!" Tomoko yelled, which was rather uncharacteristic of her, "Our sister's lives are on the line here! We really should use all the power we can! Combine with me!"

Akane frowned, but complied, "Fine, let's hurry!"

The two's Bladebot's tranformed in preparation for combining as they flew towards each other. The docks connected, and as they did the large helmet on Tomoko's Bladebot flew off and attached itself onto the head of Akane's Bladebot.

"Bladebot SYNC!" They both yelled in unison.

However, the docking looked sloppy and out of place, and when Tomoko checked her monitor, she saw why.

"W-what! Only 35% synchronization? What's going on?"

Akane forced the two Bladebots to move, but their movements were slow and cumbersome.

"Hurry, Tomoko! We won't stay synced long at this rate!" Akane yelled.

Tomoko frowned, "Akane! We can't fight like this!"

"NONSENSE!" Akane yelled, charging forwards as fast as the poorly synced Bladebot could move. She tried to blast the Blacksabre with her other arm's cannon, but the blast was weak, and the Blacksabre merely brushed it off and knocked the combined Bladebot to the ground.

Tomoko clenched her teeth, "Akane, that blast… why was that so weak?"

As Tomoko brought up a new screen to monitor the condition of Akane's Bladebot, her eyes widened.

"Akane! Your Emotion Drive is barely producing any power!" Tomoko pointed out.

Akane frowned, "Nevermind that! We have to finish this before the sync breaks!"

However, as the combined Bladebot got up, the mantis Blacksabre swiped at the docking port with it's scythe-arm, and the two Bladebots were forced apart violently. Tomoko's rolled along the ground and stopped in front of the couple, while Akane's flew into the air and landed harshly on top of the clubhouse, crashing through it's roof.

Akane's Bladebot opened its cockpit and she fell out of it as the Bladebot flickered out of power. Tomoko's eyes widened and she lept out of her cockpit and ran over to her friend.

"Akane-san! Are you alright?" Tomoko asked, alarmed.

Akari, likewise, ran up to her sister, "Nee-chan!"

Chinatsu simply gaped on at the scene, "N-nee-chan?"

Akane groaned as she opened her eyes and clutched her arm. It was cut and bleeding, and Tomoko quickly ripped a part of her shirt and began bandaging it.

"Akane-san, back there, your power output… Have you been fighting like this that whole time?"

Akane nodded, looking completely worn down and defeated, "Sorry."

Tomoko frowned, "What's wrong with you, then? You know you can't pilot a Bladebot if you're all depressed like this! What's going on!"

Akari's eyes widened, "W-wha?"

Akane glanced at her sister for the briefest of moments, frowned and shook her head, "It's… it's not important! Nevermind it!"

Tomoko shook her head, "You can't act like this! The Emotion Drive won't-"

Akari and Chinatsu both tilted their heads in confusion.

"Emotion Drive?" they echoed.

Tomoko looked up and realized they hadn't been told anything yet. She figured they'd have plenty of time to hear about the Resistance and the time loop and everything else later, but maybe Akari could help cheer Akane up if they knew more about the Bladebots.

She nodded, "The Emotion Drive was invented the leader of the Resistance, Ozu Miraisei. It converts human emotion into raw power. The Bladebots harness this power, and use it to fight and maintain synchronization. However, Emotion Drive has a hard time converting negative emotions into energy, so only a person who's fired up for battle and filled with positive feelings can efficiently power and pilot a Bladebot."

Akari's eyes widened. Earlier, she had rejected her sister's advances. She wasn't regretting her decision, but she realized fully why Akane was having trouble piloting her Bladebot.

"FOOLS! YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME!" the Blacksabre yelled, approaching them slowly.

Chinatsu clutched Akari's hand tightly and planted a kiss on her cheek, "Hey, at least we're together, right?"

Akari couldn't help but smile at Chinatsu's words, and Tomoko's eyes widened.

She leapt to her feet and smiled, "YOU TWO! YOU'RE SMILING! Even in a situation like this, you two..."

Akari turned to look at her girlfriend's sister and realized what she meant.

Chinatsu caught on too, and added to her sister's train of thought, "If the Emotion Drive runs off of positive emotions, and me and Akari are in love…"

Tomoko nodded, "Akari! Chinatsu! You two can pilot our Bladebots!"

Akari's eyes widened, and even as Tomoko gazed upon her like a glimmering ray of hope, and Chinatsu held her hand encouragingly, Akari felt incredibly overwhelmed.

_"Can I really do this?"_

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**AN: So I'm now doing this thing where each chapter (or "Episode") is going to get a cheesy Anime episode title. As this Episode's title says, we learn exactly what the Bladebot's power source is, and introduce an important plot point (which also happens to be one of the reasons behind the title of the fanfiction).**


	3. Episode 3: Akaza Akari, The Protagonist!

_**_**Disclaimer: I do not own YuruYuri or any associated characters. The original characters that appear in this story are of my own creation.**_**_

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**Episode 3: Akaza Akari, The Protagonist Once More!**

Akari was gazing apprehensively at the open cockpit of her sister's Bladebot.

When she had woken up, she had not in her wildest dreams anticipated anything like this happening. She had an incredible lack of presence that persisted, even after she started dating Chinatsu. She was your average, everyday middle-schooler. She may have had an awesome girlfriend, and she may be surrounded by insane, crazy friends and teachers, but she herself was remarkably plain.

"I… how can someone like me… fight like this…?" She asked herself out loud. Chinatsu was already over at the other Bladebot, sitting in the cockpit and getting a last minute overview of what things did. Akane was standing here, grasping her arm and waiting for her younger sister to climb in so she could do the same.

The Blacksabre continued to progress, taunting them with it's loud voice.

"WHAT'S WRONG? SCARED? WELL, I CAN'T BLAME YOU FOR THAT! MAYBE YOU FINALLY REALIZED YOU CAN'T WIN!"

As Akari took a tentative step towards the cockpit, she heard the other Bladebot roar into life. She turned around just as the cockpit closed and the Bladebot took off.

Still, even with her Emotion Drive running on love, Chinatsu was inexperienced as a pilot, and a swipe from the Blacksabre sent her flying back again.

Tomoko looked upon Chinatsu worryingly, and turned around.

"Akari! You can do it!"

Akari looked hesitantly at her, and looked down. She collapsed, overwhelmed with this newfound responsibility.

"I don't know if I can!" She yelled out.

Akane frowned, "Are you really going to let your girlfriend fight out there alone!"

Akari looked up in surprise. She hadn't expected Akane to be concerned for Chinatsu's well-being, given the current circumstances.

Chinatsu was slowly starting to get the hang of the controls, but it was a slow process, and the mantis Blacksabre was kicking her around like a plaything.

Akari closed her eyes, on the verge of tears.

"I'm not strong enough for something like this! If it was someone like Sakurako or Kyouko, they'd probably jump right in without hesitation! But I'm not like them! I'm… I'm scared… I'm scared…"

Suddenly, however, the phrase "I'm Scared" popped up in Akari's mind, but it wasn't her saying it.

An image of little Kyouko appeared in her mind, sitting on the ground, crying, she remembered something from her past.

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_**The Past**_

"I'm scared! I'm scared! Yui!" a young Kyouko cried. She appeared a little older than when they were bullied by the mysterious pink-haired girl that was most definitely not Chinatsu, but she was still a very timid and shy person. She had been pushed down onto the ground and scratched her knee.

Akari and Yui stepped in front of her, glaring at the mean boy who had just shoved her over. He had spiky black hair and fierce eyes. He was wearing a black shirt with a wolf face on it, and red shorts. He frowned angrily at them, a pointy tooth poking out of his mouth.

"Didn't you hear what I said? I've claimed this part of the playground! You're not allowed! Shoo!"

Yui crossed her arms, "This isn't anyone's playground! You have to share it!"

He crossed his arms back, "Nuh-uh! I got here first, and I'm not letting you on!"

Yui got mad and ran over to the kid, ready to hit him, but he simply dodged and tripped her as she ran past. She landed roughly on the ground and cringed in pain, grabbing her ankle.

Akari soon became the only thing in between her friend and this menacing boy. She held out her arms in protection.

"Back off, meanie!" Akari yelled, "I won't let you pass!"

"Heh, what can you do?" the kid asked, "You're trembling too! You should just run home to mommy!"

The kid shoved Akari backwards, and she hit the ground roughly. As tears filled her eyes, she watched the boy approach Kyouko.

"What's wrong, crybaby? can't handle a little scratch?" the kid mocked.

Kyouko continued to cry, seemingly ignoring the black-haired kid.

"Hey! This is my territory! I don't need crybabies on my territory!"

Kyouko still didn't respond, and the boy gritted his teeth.

"What's wrong with you! You gonna cry about everything until your friends get up to try to save you again?" the boy taunted.

Kyouko wiped her eyes and looked at her two friends, Akari on the ground near her and Yui clutching her ankle in pain. She glared up at the boy in anger, which was something uncharacteristic of young Kyouko.

"Yeah, your friends are hurt too! So, what're you gonna do about it? Cry more?" he mocked, looking down on her.

Akari watched her finish wiping away her tears and climb to her feet. As Akari reached out, worried that the boy would hurt her, Kyouko whirled around and punched the boy hard in the stomach.

He doubled over and collapsed to the ground before looking back up at her.

"I won't cry about it!" she declared.

Akari looked upon the scene, amazed. Kyouko was always weak and timid, she never stood up for herself. But here she was, sticking up for them.

"Alright, now we're talking!" The boy smirked, "Girls usually don't put up much of a challenge!"

Yui slowly got to her feet, "What was that?"

The boy grinned once more, "I said, girls usually don't put up much of a challenge!"

Yui gave the boy a death glare and ran at him, ignoring the pain in her ankle.

She kicked the boy hard in the stomach, dodged his punch, grabbed his arm, and twisted it behind his back in one swift motion.

The boy gritted his teeth, "Alright, I give, I give! I'll leave!"

Yui released the boy and he ran off.

"Wow, Kyouko!" Yui replied turning to her friend, "I'm impressed, you usually don't stand up for yourself like that."

Kyouko glared at the direction he ran, "He made me mad! Boys are jerks! I don't like them!"

Kyouko went over to Akari and pulled her up too. As she stood there, Kyouko placed a hand on Akari's shoulder.

"Thanks for protecting me back there," she smiled, "I'm older than you, so I'm the one who's supposed to protect you, but you've been protecting me this whole time. From now on, I'm gonna stick up for myself, alright!"

Akari smiled and nodded, "Right!"

* * *

_**The Present**_

Akari opened her eyes. Kyouko had been scared, too. Kyouko had been scared, but she knew that she had to stand up for them, so she stood up and fought back, and ever since then, Kyouko changed into the outgoing, fun-loving Kyouko Akari knew now.

"Maybe I'm scared… but I have to fight!" She declared, jumping into the cockpit of her sister's Bladebot. She saw two handles and a few foot pedals, and Akane gave her a quick lesson.

"The handles control the arms, the triggers fire those arm's particular weapons, and the pedals control the legs and boosters. This button here initiates transformation for combining. The monitor responds to thought, but it takes some getting used to. I've already pulled up the necessary screens to monitor the Emotion Drive's power output and energy readings." Akane explained.

Akari nodded and placed her hands on the handles. As she did, she felt the Bladebot power on, and the monitors popped up. The cockpit began to close, and Akane smiled, "Good luck."

Akari let out the breath she didn't know she was holding and she quickly brought the Bladebot to it's feet.

"So far, so good, Akarin!" She said to herself.

She placed her foot on one of the booster pedals and felt the mech jolt forwards. She was a bit scared at first, but she quickly got the hang of it and raised one of her mech's arms to shoot at the Blacksabre. When she pulled the trigger, however, she only heard clicks.

She sighed and shifted to the other arm, which had a kind of energy beam. She looked over at the blue monitor measuring the Emotion Drive output, but it wasn't nearly as much as she had imagined.

_"I'm still a bit hesitant. I need to focus on my feelings for Chinatsu!"_

Even at just the mention of her name, the Emotion Drive spiked, and she smiled. It was working.

As she focused on Chinatsu, she soon had enough power to fire the energy beam.

"Alright, here we go!" She yelled, pointing the charged cannon at her enemy. She fired the beam and it sliced cleanly through two of the four legs planted firmly on the ground.

As the Blacksabre lost balance, it yelled out, "WHAT? WHAT WAS THAT?"

Tomoko looked on the ground in amazement, "Wow, it's working better than I had expected! Isn't that great, Akane-san?"

Tomoko looked over at Akane, but the latter simply gave her a half-hearted smile, "Y-yeah."

Tomoko frowned, but looked back up at the battle. Chinatsu had joined back in, and the two were pelting the Blacksabre with a relentless barrage of attacks.

"Hey, we don't even need to combine, Akari!" Chinatsu pointed out, firing energy shots in quick succession at the Blacksabre.

Akari nodded, "Yeah, let's finish this quickly!"

Akari charged up her cannon again, and Chinatsu wound up for a powerful kick. As the beam pierced the heart of the mantis Blacksabre, Chinatsu charged towards it and kicked the enemy mech's head off. The mech slumped over and exploded, and Tomoko smiled. She hadn't seen a pod fly off, meaning that the enemy inside the Blacksabre was gone for good. A good thing too, it had seen their faces.

Akari and Chinatsu landed the Bladebots and hopped out, excited they had won against their first enemy.

"Yeah, we did it, China-chan!" Akari replied happily.

Akane came up behind the two, "Akari, you're a natural, you know that? Even Chinatsu had some trouble at the beginning, but you jumped right into it!"

Tomoko nodded, "Yeah, how'd you do that? Are you secretly the protagonist of an anime or something?"

Akari smiled, scratching the back of her head, "No no, nothing like that! I just did what I had to do to protect us from… whatever that was…"

Tomoko's eyes widened, "Ah, you two don't even know what's going on yet, do you?"

The two shook their heads, and Tomoko sighed, "Alright you two, come with us, we'll explain everything to you."

* * *

Elsewhere, two shadowy figures sat in a dark room, in front of another figure, seated in what seemed to be a throne, all of their faces obscured by the darkness.

"Damn, I can't believe they've gotten that much stronger!" the first figure spoke. The masculine voice sounded very much like the voice of the Blacksabre Lobos.

"The resistance… damn them!" the second figure replied. It's voice was old and gravely, and sounded much like the voice of the armadillo-like Blacksabre.

"They even managed to take out Mantess," the first one scoffed.

The voice of the third figure on the throne was powerful and booming, "You were three of my elite Time Agents. Your failure will not be taken lightly."

Lobos bowed, "I apologize, your highness. It will not happen again."

The other pilot of the armadillo Blacksabre also bowed, "Please give us a second chance."

"NO!" the third figure boomed, "The training of new elite Time Agents is complete. They will go out. Should they fail as well, I may consider showing you my mercy."

The two bowed, "Yes, Lord Chronolith."

Chronolith, face still obscured, looked up at the single skylight in his throne room and frowned, "The Resistance will not get more footing! I will fish them out and kill them, and crush all hopes humanity has of rising against me."

* * *

**AN: So, there you have it! Akari may have finally found the thing that makes her real protagonist material! We also get a glimpse at the menacing Chronolith, who seems to be the man in charge of all these temporal shenanigans!**

**What are all these temporal shenanigans, you ask? We'll find that out in the next Episode, da ze!**


	4. Episode 4: The Resistance!

_**Disclaimer: I do not own YuruYuri or any associated characters. The original characters that appear in this story are of my own creation.**_

* * *

**Episode 4: The Resistance! Humanity's Last Stand**

Miraisei smiled as the three Bladebots hovered above the Uji River, near Kyodai*'s Uji campus, "Everyone! We've arrived, da ze!"

The six traveling on top of the Bladebots looked around in confusion. Kyouko, naturally, was the first to state hers out loud, "I don't see anything, though!"

Miraisei smiled, "You'll see soon enough!"

Miraisei, Tetsuya, and Haru all opened their cockpits, and Tetsuya spoke next, "We can fit two other people in each cockpit, divide yourselves up accordingly."

Kyouko and Ayano hopped in with Tetsuya, Yui carried Chitose over to Miraisei's cockpit, and Nana and Rise climbed into Haru's Bladebot. Once everyone was inside, the cockpits closed and Miraisei smirked.

"Alright team! LET'S DIVE!"

The three Bladebots plunged into the river and Kyouko's eyes lit up. Down on the floor of the river was a large, metal door. As the group neared the door, warning lights on the side began lighting up and the door slowly slid open.

Once it was completely open, the three mechs entered. The room the door led into was fairly small and filled with water, but there were drains and another door below them, and the six newcomers correctly deduced that it was some sort or airlock.

The door above them closed, and the water drained surprisingly fast for how large the room was. Once it was gone, the bottom doors opened up, revealing a rather large hangar, complete with scaffolding and large tools to repair and maintain the Bladebots.

The three Bladebots moved to what appeared to be designated areas, the two Bladebots with large arms on one side of the hangar and Miraisei's Bladebot with the large legs on the other side. As their pilots and passengers piled out, they looked around in amazement.

"Woah," Kyouko exclaimed, "To think there was something like this in the Uji River!"

Yui nodded, "Yeah, and we were pretty close to one of Kyodai's campuses… we must be right under it!"

Miraisei smiled, "Nope, you're on it!"

Tetsuya smiled, "Yeah, we're all graduates of Kyodai! The Resistance is entirely run and funded by Kyodai's Science Department!"

"EEEEHHHHHHH, You graduated from Kyoudai!?" everyone's eyes widened as they turned to Nana, who smiled sheepishly.

"Oh, I forgot to mention that, didn't I?" she replied in a sing-song voice.

Kyouko looked around, "So, the Resistance must be pretty big to get this kind of funding!"

"Actually," Tetsuya piped in, "The Resistance is just the repurposed Science Club… the school just gives it's academic clubs a lot of money."

Miraisei smiled, "There are some people on the inside who know about things, though, so that helps us get a bit more resources!"

"Speaking of knowing about things," Yui began, still carrying Chitose over her shoulder, "When are you guys going to explain exactly what's going on?"

Haru nodded, "Right, let's explain things to the newcomers, shall we?"

The group made their way out of the hangar and into a small meeting room with a large screen along one of the walls. Miraisei and Tetsuya stood at the front, ready to explain the situation, while Haru opted to sit with the others, deliberately picking the seat next to Nana, who looked a bit uncomfortable with the way things were turning out.

Yui took the opportunity to shake Chitose conscious so she would understand what's going on too.

"ALRIGHT, DA ZE!" Miraisei yelled, "TETSUYA! Ready my Super-Kickass-Awesome-Slideshow-To-Explain-Everything Slideshow!"

Tetsuya sighed, "Sis, I think that needs a shorter name, and you used slideshow twice…"

"Bro," Miraisei shook her head and waggled a finger in front of him, "You clearly have no tact! It's a ridiculous nonsensical name that makes it twice as awesome!"

"Would you two stop fighting and explain what's going on already!?" Yui asked, annoyed.

Tetsuya turned on the projector and Miraisei stood next to the screen with her hands on her hips, "Alright! For the past nine years, Humanity has been trapped in a two-tier multi-dimensional closed temporal feedback loop!"

As she said this, the slide displayed a complex graph and multiple scientific equations jumbled together.

Nana gasped audibly, but the terms Miraisei used, as well as the slide, went right over everyone's heads.

Well, almost everyone's.

Kyouko nodded her head and placed her fist in her hand, "Aha! It all makes sense now!"

Ayano looked over at Kyouko, "I-it does?"

Kyouko nodded again, "Basically it means that we're trapped in not one time loop, but two!"

Yui glared at Kyouko, "There's no way that's what it-!"

Miraisei smiled interrupting, "We've got a genius in here, that's exactly what it means!"

Yui fell over in her seat and Kyouko gave a smug look.

"Wait," Ayano piped in, "You said nine years, but we've only noticed the past three years repeated."

Miraisei nodded, "That's the second time loop! It's a preventative measure to ensure that people don't figure out what's going on! The first time loop, the one you've noticed, is a year long. At the end of the year, time repeats, but people still remember things like people they've met."

Tetsuya piped in, "The second time loop is the scarier one. It's a complete reset. Every three years, all memories are wiped from everyone's minds. Everyone they met, the places they visited, everything gone in an instant."

Everyone's eyes widened at this.

"Wait, so… we could've met nine years ago?" Ayano asked, pointing to her and Kyouko.

Miraisei nodded, "Yep, that's why it's scary. After three years, _everything_ resets."

"The first time it happened," Tetsuya began, "We literally didn't remember anything. Luckily, Miraisei was smart enough to leave behind detailed information regarding the time loops and the Resistance, so we were able to pick up where we left off fairly quickly."

"After that," Miraisei smiled, "I developed a field that negates the reset. It allows us to retain our memories so we don't lose progress."

The six newcomers were justifiably disturbed by this information, but Miraisei didn't allow them to mull it over much.

"NEXT SLIDE!" She yelled, and the next slide displayed a familiar looking black wolf mech.

"These sorry bastards are called Time Agents! They use these black mechs called Blacksabres to eliminate any humans that find out about the time loop."

Tetsuya automatically switched to the next slide, which showed an animated model of a black armor plate dissolving into nothing, with question marks around it.

"In the past, the Blacksabres were made out of regular metal alloys, so when either me or Tetsuya defeated a Time Agent, we could study their mechs and figure out how they worked. We used one of them to reverse engineer what was soon to be the first Bladebots," Miraisei explained, "The new Blacksabres appear to be made of a strange metallic substance that dissolves away when the Time Agent ejects from the Blacksabre, or it is otherwise destroyed. We haven't been able to study them so far."

Tetsuya switched to the next slide once Miraisei finished, and she pouted, "Aw, I wanted to yell 'next slide' again!"

The next slide depicted two diagrams of the different types of Bladebots. The one with the larger arms and head was labeled "Type-A" and the one with the larger legs was labeled "Type-L".

"These are the current Bladebot models!" Miraisei began, "They're designed with combining in mind, so separately, they look a bit off. As you can see, however, together…"

Tetsuya clicked a button, and the two images began moving next to each other. Once they were right on top of each other, the borders separating both images disappeared and both the Type-A and Type-L were right on top of each other, as if they were combined. The "Type-A" and "Type-L" labels disappeared and were replaced with a "Type-X (combined)" label instead.

"...They take a more humanoid shape!" Miraisei finished.

Ayano raised her hand to pose a question, "If you designed them to combine in the first place, why don't you just build them already together like that?"

Miraisei smiled, "I was just about to get to that! See, the amount of power needed to maintain a mech like a Type-X as compared to its component halves is exponentially greater. Even docking and holding the two Bladebots together takes a lot of energy, so it's more energy-efficient to keep them separate and combine them in a pinch, da ze!"

Nana piped in, "By the way, what exactly powers the Bladebots?"

Miraisei's eyes gleamed, "That's on the NEXT SLIDE!"

Tetsuya rolled his eyes and switched to the next slide. A diagram of a strange machine was displayed. The diagram showed the machine underneath the cockpit of a Bladebot. There was a silhouette of a person sitting in the cockpit, and it showed a flow of energy coming from them from the handles of the Bladebot into the machine.

"Behold, the Emotion Drive!" Miraisei pointed out, "It's my greatest invention! It converts human emotions into raw energy! Anyone who's fired up enough can effectively power a Bladebot on their own, but the more positive the emotion, the stronger the energy output!"

The slide demonstrated this by making giving the silhouette a smile, and showing more energy pumping into the machine.

"This is entirely crucial for a sync. In order to sync efficiently, one must not only be producing as much energy as they can, but they also have to be on the same wavelength as the other pilot they want to combine with! We've come up with a way to measure the strength of the sync with percentages." Tetsuya added in.

Miraisei nodded, "Earlier today, me and Tetsuya achieved a 95% sync! That's as highest as we've recorded so far. That's the power of the Ozu Family Spirit!"

Tetsuya ignored her sister's immense enthusiasm and continued, "Theoretically, a 100% sync would be able to sustain itself indefinitely, but so far, each sync has a varying time limit depending on its strength."

"TETSUYA! NEXT SLIDE, DA ZE!" Miraisei yelled enthusiastically.

"Sis, that's the end…" Tetsuya pointed out.

"Huh? Awww….." Miraisei pouted, "Alright, any questions!?"

Kyouko raised her hand immediately, "CAN I DRIVE ONE?"

Yui glared at Kyouko, "Baka! There's no way they'd let us-"

"HELL YEAH YOU CAN!" Miraisei yelled, "I like your enthusiasm! What's your name, da ze?"

"I'm Toshino Kyouko!" Kyouko announced.

"Well, Toshino Kyouko, welcome to the Resistance, da ze!" Miraisei replied.

Ayano lept up too, "I-I'm Sugiura Ayano! And if you think I'm gonna let my thick-headed girlfriend join without me, you're dead wrong!"

Miraisei smiled, "Glad to have you on board, Sugiura-san!"

Yui sighed, "Kyouko would probably drag me along anyway, so I guess I'm in either way, I'm Funami Yui"

Miraisei gave Yui a once-over, frowned, then grinned, "Wonderful! I've always wanted to see if the Emotion Drive works on a kuudere!"

Yui glared at the older woman, an anger vein popping up on her forehead, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Chitose got up and smiled, "My, it looks like everyone's joining. Might as well tag along, it could be fun!"

Yui noted that the whole time she had her eyes on Kyouko and Ayano.

"I'm Ikeda Chitose!"

Miraisei grinned, "Wow, four new members in one day! I'm impressed!"

"Make that six," Nana replied, "My student aid, Matsumoto Rise, and I are in!"

Haru jumped up at hearing this and wrapped her arm around Nana's, "Yay! The old Science Club's back together at last!"

Nana looked uncomfortable with Haru's contact, something Tetsuya picked up on.

"Hey, Haru, let's leave Miraisei to give them the grand tour of the base. You and I should make preparations for our new members." he directed, heading over to the door.

"A-ah, yeah," she replied, seemingly downtrodden, "Alright, well, I've got work to do, we can catch up later or something, Nana!"

As Haru and Tetsuya walked out of the meeting room, Nana let out an inaudible sigh of relief, which Rise picked up on.

Miraisei grinned, "Alright! time for the tour! You already saw the hangars, so let's not go back there! Suddenly however, a loud bang sounded from the Hangar area, and Miraisei's eyes widened.

"Actually, it sounds like something's going on in the Hangar bay, let's go there first!"

As the group ran out of the meeting room and back into the Hangar, they saw two new mechs. One was a red Type-A parked neatly near the other Type-As, where the other was a pink Type-L, that looked like it had recently rammed into the wall roughly.

It fell over and the cockpit opened up, revealing a disoriented Chinatsu and her panicking sister.

Akari jumped out of the other Bladebot, followed my Akane, and ran over to her girlfriend.

"China-chan! Are you okay?" Akari asked, alarmed.

"I still don't know how to pilot these things!" Chinatsu exclaimed, and their other friends were surprised.

Kyouko, as predictable as ever, was vocal about her surprise, "No fair! You already got to drive one!"

Akari looked up, "Ah, you guys were here too?"

Miraisei smiled, "Well, it looks like we have more than just six newcomers! Welcome, sisters of Tomoko and Akane, to the Resistance!"

* * *

**AN: So it looks like our second-years have joined up with the Resistance, and we find out the surprising truth about the time loop.**

**There wasn't so much action in this chapter, but I wanted to get things cleared up and out of the way.**

**By the way, just how strong is this Ozu Family Spirit if it let Tetsuya and Miraisei take out giant mechs before they had the Bladebots?**

***Translator Note: Kyodai here refers to Kyoto University, a highly rated Japanese college with campuses in and near Kyoto.**


	5. Episode 5: Grand Tour!

_**Disclaimer: I do not own YuruYuri or any associated characters. The original characters that appear in this story are of my own creation.**_

* * *

**Episode 5: Grand Tour of Kyodai Base! Now What!?**

Miraisei had quickly whisked up the two newcomers, and now a familiar group was all together and parading around behind her.

"And here's the meeting room!" Miraisei announced happily.

Yui deadpanned, "We know, we were just in here!"

Miraisei frowned, "little Akaza-san and little Yoshikawa-san weren't! Don't be rude to your friends!"

Yui was having serious doubts about the resistance if she was the one in charge.

As the two headed down the long hallway to wherever else Miraisei wanted to take them, Yui took the opportunity to converse with the two younger members of the Amusement Club.

"So, you two got dragged into this too, huh?" Yui asked.

Akari sighed, "That's a bit of an understatement, we got thrown face-first into this."

Chinatsu nodded, "I'm still not used to piloting those things at all, but Akari here is a natural at it!"

Yui smiled, "A natural, huh? And here we thought you'd never find anything to give you more presence!"

Akari smiled, balling her hand into a fist and holding it in front of her victoriously, "Yeah! I'm like the protagonist of an anime!"

Yui opened her mouth to say something, but Miraisei interjected, they had arrived at their next destination in the tour.

"This is the food court, da ze!" she smiled enthusiastically, "The food's actually pretty mediocre, but we can't afford to buy better ingredients because we spend so much money building kickass mechs!"

Yui once again gave Miraisei a deadpan look and replied, "You don't sugarcoat things, do you?"

"Moving along~!"

"Hey, don't ignore me!" Yui yelled, then realized Miraisei, in many ways, reminded her of an older Kyouko. She was loud, boisterous, cocky, and energetic. No wonder Yui felt the urge to remark on everything she did critically.

Kyouko was running around the group, fueled by boundless energy, and gazing at everything in the base in awe and amazement. Ayano had, at first, tried to get her to settle down, but when her protests went ignored, Yui had given her a knowing look and shook her head. Pursuing the matter further was useless.

Miraisei paraded them into an elevator ("This is the elevator, da ze!"). Once they reached the second floor of the base, she guided them out.

"LET'S KICK THIS TOUR INTO HYPERGEAR, DA ZE!" she yelled, notably yelling out "hypergear" in English.

She charged down the hall, opening doors as she went, "R&amp;D LAB! BLADEBOT WORKSHOP! PAINT CENTER! JANITOR'S CLOSET! BATHROOMS! COLD STORAGE! REGULAR STORAGE! GENERATOR ROOM! AAAAAANNNNNNDDDDDDDDDD…"

As she charged down the hall, she stopped and skidded to a halt infront of a door, she opened it and hard metal floors were replaced with wooden ones, and the decor became less sterile and dank and more homey. The area led into numerous doors, each one with a number and some with names next to them.

"THE CREW QUARTERS! she finished, wiping sweat off of her brow.

Kyouko looked around and once again "oohhed", which earned her a pinch from her girlfriend, "How is this any different from a normal home, baka?"

Kyouko scratched the back of her head and stuck her tongue out to the side, earning her a sigh from both her violet-haired girlfriend and her raven-haired best friend.

Miraisei smiled, putting her hands on her hips successfully "Now, who's staying here for the night?"

No one spoke up, and Miraisei slumped.

"We've got to get back to the hotel so no-one gets suspicious," Yui elaborated, covering the reasons for the second-years."

"We're going home with our sisters later," Akari replied, pointing to her and Chinatsu.

Rise turned to Nana and said something that only Nana could hear, and Nana smiled, "We're both free to stay here."

Miraisei immediately brightened, "Sweet! It's good to see the Science Club back in action, da ze! When I left College, you, Tetsuya, Haru, and Hatate where the only new members! I was afraid the Club would diminish, but it looks like you guys pulled in new recruits! And now we're the Resistance! Fighting for humanity!"

Nana smiled, "I definitely missed your over-the-top attitude towards life, Miraisei."

Miraisei put on a cocky grin, "But of course! I am, after all, the-"

"The Kickass Leader of the Resistance is required, Sis," Tetsuya walked in with Haru, startling both Nana and Miraisei.

"OH, the board meeting!" Miraisei's eyes widened, "I completely forgot about it! All the academic club presidents are required to be there! I better hurry or they'll cut our funding again!"

As the busty, raven-haired woman charged off, Tetsuya looked at the group, and quickly took charge of the situation.

"Before you guys leave, we'll have to assign you Bladebots. Since you know about the time loop, it's completely possible that the Time Agents will attack again. Usually they don't attack at night, and they try to avoid attacking in the middle of the day near large crowds, but if you're alone, you may be in danger."

"But, we were attacked in the middle of the day near a large crowd," Yui pointed out.

"They indiscriminately attack anyone new that finds out about the time loop," Tetsuya explained, "That way if someone finds out, they don't have an opportunity to tell anyone else."

Kyouko nodded, "Ah, that makes sense! BUT WAIT! Won't someone notice the large black mechs attacking someone?"

Tetsuya nodded, "Yeah, but apparently the they have a contingency. They can literally erase that period of time from someone's memory. I don't know why they don't do it more often, but I imagine it's the reason why you've never noticed that happening. It happens quite frequently, you know. If you're ever outside or in a crowded area and you feel like time's gone by faster than it should, that's normally why."

Ayano spoke up, "So these things can attack whenever, and we won't remember it happening?"

Tetsuya shook his head, "Once you become aware of the time loop, they can't alter your memory so easily. In fact, the only thing that can possibly alter your memory now is the reset at the end of the 3 years, but like I said, we have a contingency for that."

Tetsuya and company arrived at the Bladebot workshop. There was a large collection of blank, unpainted Bladebots of both types along each wall. Some of them had weapons, but most of them had yet to be equipped with anything.

"This is where you girls will be assigned Bladebots! The color and weapons are up to you!" Tetsuya announced.

* * *

**Elsewhere**

A boy with spiky black hair and glaring red eyes stood in the middle of a large room. He looked around the age of a high schooler, and was clad in a black undershirt and red training shorts, with bandages wrapped around his arms. Sweat dripped from his face, and he was panting heavily.

He walked up to a punching back in the center of the room and began hitting it furiously, growling with each hit. He had a deep scowl on his face, and he gave an overall air of being rather pissed off.

As the door behind him opened, he let out one final punch and ripped the punching bag open. He took it off of its hook and tossed it over to one side, where numerous other broken punching bags sat.

"Settle down, Lobos," The voice spoke. An old man walked in, walking with the aid of a cane, and frowned, "Beating yourself up over your failure yesterday is not productive."

"Shut it, Armaldol," He took another punching bag from a previously unseen pile of unused ones and hung it up on the hook. It didn't take him long to start punching away at it.

"You're more riled up than normal, what gives?" Armaldol asked, walking closer to him.

"It's none of your concern!" he yelled, "now beat it!"

He punched the bag so hard towards Armaldol that it flew off it's hook and headed straight for the old man's face. In a swift motion, the old man drew a sword from within his cane and sliced the bag clean in half, it falling to either side of him as he smirked.

"Very well, I'll let you mope in here, but Lobos," Armaldol turned to leave, "Don't be too upset. I hear Chronolith's only keeping us here so we can test out some new toys."

Lobos gave no reply, but let a small smirk show on his face. After Armaldol left the room completely, he let out a small laugh.

"Soon, Tetsuya… soon I will finally be able to beat you…"

* * *

**Kyodai Base**

Tetsuya smiled, "Alright, looks like that's the last one! Now, take these!"

Tetsuya handed a small, square necklace to each person sans Akari and Chinatsu. The necklaces each had a different color and a small red button on the center.

"If you ever need your Bladebot for any reason, just press the button in the center three times quickly. Your Bladebot will be launched from the hangar and home in on where you are. The buttons are red now, but when your Bladebot is available, it will turn blue. Since all of you have absolutely no experience piloting Bladebots, only use these for emergencies until you return for training."

After he explained it to them, he turned to Akari and Chinatsu, "You two will be getting your sisters' old Bladebots. Akane talked to me a bit after returning and they'll be off field duty until further notice."

"Why both of them?" Chinatsu asked.

Tetsuya let out an "Oh" of realization and pointed to both sides of the hangars. "As you may have noticed, half of you recieved Type-As and the other half received Type-Ls. Kyouko, Chitose, and Rise, you all received Type-A Bladebots. Ayano, Yui, and Nana, you have Type-Ls. You guys haven't been trained, so it's trivial now, but in the future you will be partnered up with someone from the opposite group. If something renders either you or your partner unable to fight for an extended period of time, you will be taken off field duty until both partners are in fighting condition. This is to decrease your chances of being in a fight without the option of combining."

Chinatsu nodded in realization and Noticed Akane and Tomoko returning.

"Akari, looks like we're headed home," she pointed out.

Akari turned around and nodded, and Tetsuya smiled, "Take care, you two."

Tetsuya turned to everyone else, "Alright, you four need to get back too, right? Haru, would you mind finding Katsu and have you two fly the others back?"

Haru looked a bit disappointed, but nodded, "No problem, I guess, Come on girls! The lazy lug's probably still sleeping anyway."

As soon as she had escorted the four second-years out, Tetsuya turned towards Nana and Rise, "I'll take you two to the crew quarters and show you your room."

* * *

**Hotel (Kyoto)**

Ayano was restless. It was the middle of the night at the hotel, and even though upon their return the four second-years had relaxed in the hot springs a bit and tried to forget the day's trouble, they all found it incredibly hard to act normal after what happened.

After more tossing and turning, she sat up with an aggravated grunt and looked around. Yui and Chitose were sleeping pretty soundly, but Kyouko was nowhere in sight. As Ayano got up to look around for her girlfriend, she noticed a draft blowing in from the sliding door. It was slightly ajar, and Ayano was pretty confident she knew who was out there.

As she made her way over to the door, she couldn't help but let out a yawn, alerting the blonde-haired girl outside to her presence.

"What's the matter, Ayano? Can't sleep?" Kyouko said in a soft voice. Even though she had heard Kyouko use that voice before, it still made Ayano's heart race. It was something about Kyouko, the loud girl with boundless energy and no self-control at all, actually speaking soft enough so that the loud, cheery tones gave way to quiet, gentler ones.

And the fact that Kyouko added a little extra sultry flair to the voice whenever she used it with Ayano helped increase the feeling.

"You're up too," Ayano pointed out, trying not to let her soft spot for Kyouko's sexy quiet voice show through too much.

Kyouko looked up at the moon, "Yeah, I suppose I can't sleep either…"

Ayano sighed, but sat down next to Kyouko, placing her hand over her girlfriend's.

"Everything seemed so… normal…" Kyouko began, "This life, these past three years… we didn't even question anything! And yet…"

"Nine years…" Ayano spoke, barely a whisper, but Kyouko heard it, and gave Ayano a questioning look.

"We could've known each other for nine years," Ayano elaborated, "We could've met each other two other times in the past… we could've done the same thing, or different things… we could've gotten together twice before this time around… and we don't even remember."

"Well," Kyouko began, "Even if we don't remember those times, we remember now, right?"

It was so simple, it was such a simple statement, and yet to Ayano, those words were so profound.

Ayano leaned over and kissed Kyouko, then stood up again.

"Well, I'm going to get some sleep, don't stay out here too long, okay?"

Kyouko turned around and gave Ayano a mischievous smirk, "Don't worry, honey, I'll come to bed soon."

"B-baka!" Ayano blushed, then gave a soft, "I love you."

"I love you too, Ayano," Kyouko replied.

Maybe they had met in the past. Maybe they had said those same words to each other countless times over these past nine years, but if Ayano knew one thing, it was that they never mattered as much as right now.

* * *

**AN: So there you guys go! Everyone's got Bladebots! There's no way giving a bunch of crazy lesbian middle-schoolers giant mechs could be a bad idea, right?**

**At any rate, it seems like, at least for now, the girls have to try to return to their everyday lives... right?**

**(How come whenever anyone asks "Right?" in this story they turn out to be wrong?)**


	6. Episode 6: Action So Soon?

_**Disclaimer: I do not own YuruYuri or any of the associated characters. All other original characters that appear in this story are of my own creation.**_

* * *

**Episode 6: Action So Soon!? A New Enemy Appears!**

Akari rolled over drowsily as her alarm went off and hit the off button. As she sat up with a yawn, she looked over at her dresser. A red necklace with a blue button in the center was placed next to her alarm clock.

"That's right," Akari mumbled in a tired voice. She grabbed it and rose to her feet.

**_I'm Akaza Akari._**

she made her way over to the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face before grabbing her toothbrush.

**_I'm your average 13-year-old girl._**

She tied up her hair into her characteristic odango and returned to her bedroom to get dressed.

**_I live in an average house with my parents and my older sister, Akane. _**

She exited her bedroom with her uniform on and headed down into the kitchen to eat breakfast. She ate quickly and as she finished, she heard a knock on her door.

"Akari! Akari!" Yui called from the other side.

"Ah! I don't want to be late. Bye mom, I'm heading out!" Akari called.

She opened the door and greeted her friends, and they all headed towards school together.

**_I have a bunch of friends, and even a girlfriend, but since I go to an all-girl's middle school, I don't stand out very much._**

Once they arrived, Yui and Kyouko parted ways, leaving Akari and Chinatsu to walk to their classroom together.

In fact, there's an unfortunate joke running even amongst my friends that I have a weak presence.

As the two took their seats and waited for class to begin, Akari stared out the window, resting her cheek on her hand.

**_But that's no longer the case! See, I'm a mech pilot for a secret Resistance against mysterious "Time Agents" who have imprisoned humanity in a time loop._**

The door of the classroom slid open, and in walked a teacher they had never seen before. The outfit she was wearing was nothing short of inappropriate for school. Her black shirt was fastened below her bust and the only thing she wore underneath was a fishnet undershirt, revealing the entirety of her cleavage. Her matching skirt was way too short to be modest, and she wore red-lace stockings and high heels to match. Her green hair was tied up in a bun and her matching eyes narrowed as she glanced around the room. After a brief moment of studying her students, a snake-like smile appeared on her face.

"Hello, students!" she spoke in a friendly voice that belied her appearance, "Your current teacher couldn't come today, so I'll be your substitute! You can call me Mamushi-sensei!"

None of the students responded to her at first, so she gave the students a scary look, and in a calm voice, replied, "Now now, students… it's not very polite to go ignoring a substitute, right?"

The students, out of fear, all responded with, "Ye-yes, Mamushi-sensei!"

"Good…" she nodded, satisfied, "now, let's begin, shall we."

The class was remarkably normal for the situation, and before they knew it, the bell had rung and the teacher began to make her way out of the classroom.

As she left, the students broke out in bustling gossip about the mysterious, scantily clad substitute.

Chinatsu frowned and turned around to face Akari, "Geez, what do you think that was about?"

Akari tilted her head at her girlfriend in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"Oh come on, Akari-n!" Chinatsu replied, "Yesterday we found out about the Resistance, and now today a mysterious woman appears! Don't you think they seem related somehow?"

Akari nodded, "It does seem suspicious when you put it that way, but she's gone now, right? If she really was a Time Agent, don't you think she would've at least confronted us about it?"

Chinatsu nodded, "I guess you're right…"

Akari frowned, "Anyway, more importantly, Himawari's not here."

Chinatsu glanced over at where the blue-haired girl normally sat, and sure enough she was gone.

Chinatsu's eyes widened, "Do you think she figured it out about the time loop too?"

Akari got a worried look on her face, "What if she figured it out and there was no one there to save her!"

Chinatsu was about to say something, but then the bell rang once more. They waited for their normal teacher to walk in, but strangely enough, it was Mamushi-sensei again.

"Eeeehhhhhh?" all the students replied.

Mamushi-sensei smiled, "It seems that your next teacher also couldn't make it today! My, how curious! I've been assigned for this period too!"

* * *

Akari sighed, climbing the last stair-steps up to the roof of the school, her bento in her left hand and her girlfriend's arm in her right.

She collapsed to the ground in an uncharacteristically melodramatic manner, "Geez! Climbing all the way up to the roof just for lunch is more of a pain than anime would make you believe!"

Chinatsu smiled, "It's probably because we're first-years, so we're down on the first floor!"

Akari nodded, then made her way over to one of the benches and sat down to eat, "I can't believe Mamushi-sensei's come back every period!"

Chinatsu nodded, digging into her own plate, "Tell me about it! Talk about suspicious! And what's with that ridiculous getup of hers? The teachers have a dress-code too! So what gives?"

"Now, now, students…" a voice behind them, way too close for comfort, spoke, "you know gossip is rude, RIGHT?"

They whirled around just in time to see Mamushi-sensei raise her hand into the air. Her arm was encased in a strange, metallic box, which, upon her arm's motion, quickly unfolded and encased her entire body in a black cocoon. After a few moments of terrified silence, the cocoon broke away, revealing that the once provocatively dressed teacher was now clad in a black mech suit.

"Behold, all the power of a normal Blacksabre, condensed into a small, portable form! This is a BLACKDAGGER!"

**_Actually, I just recently joined the Resistance, so something like this is COMPLETELY UNEXPECTED!_**

Akari leapt to her feet and scrambled to pull her necklace out of her uniform, but to her horror, the button was red.

"W-what?" Akari panicked.

Chinatsu checked her own necklace and it was the same sad story. The button's color indicated their Bladebots were unavailable to be summoned.

Mamushi charged at them, and Chinatsu reacted first, she grabbed Akari and pulled them both out of the way of her attack.

"What gives! I'm sure it was blue this morning!" Akari yelled.

"_Hey, Akaza-san, Yoshikawa-san, can you two hear me?"_

"Wha! Te-Tetsuya-san?" Akari exclaimed, "Where-"

"_The necklaces have mini communicators on them, I'm talking to you from the base!"_

Mamushi turned back around and Chinatsu panicked, "We've got a bit of a situation here!"

"_Yeah, I'm picking up the energy signature of a Blacksabre… but… smaller?"_

"It's like some sort of weird mech suit thing!" Akari yelled, dodging another one of Mamushi's attacks.

"_Hmmm… so they had something like that up their sleeves, huh?"_

"Don't sound so impressed! DO SOMETHING!" Chinatsu yelled, barely dodging one of Mamushi's swipes.

"_Alright, alright," _Tetsuya replied, _"Uh… here, I'm sending weapons to your location!"_

"Weapons?" Akari asked, "but what about our Bladebots!?"

"_We don't know how strong this new type of mech suit is, but it's best if we can avoid you two running around in Bladebots if at all possible."_

"But…" Akari collapsed onto the ground in dismay, "I'm good at piloting Bladebots… I don't know if I can just fight with regular weapons… MY POSITION AS PROTAGONIST!"

Two colored, cylindrical capsules crashed into the roof of the school, and opened up. One was pink and contained a naginata and the other was red and contained a katana.

"Not on my watch, students!" Mamushi charged forwards in an attempt to position herself between her opponents and their weapons. Chinatsu, however, was too fast and grabbed the naginata from her capsule.

She thrusted forwards with the spear-like weapon at Mamushi, but it simply deflected off of her mech suit.

"N-no effect!" Chinatsu exclaimed in shock.

Akari, still unequipped to battle, found Mamushi charging at her quickly. She tried to dodge, but Mamushi was too quick and managed to swipe her arm with the claws on her Blackdagger.

Akari felt the searing pain in her arm and gritted her teeth.

_No, I'm Akaza Akari! I've waited my whole life to seize this chance! I'm supposed to be the protagonist!_

Akari's sword, still in the capsule, began to spark with energy, something Chinatsu noticed.

Chinatsu grabbed the sheathed blade and yelled out, "AKARI-N!" before tossing the sword to her girlfriend.

The second Akari grabbed the hilt, the sword burst into life, sparks flying off of it and propelling the sheath off of the katana forcefully. It rammed into Mamushi with an alarming force, and the "substitute" looked at Akari in surprise.

"What the hell was that?" she yelled.

Akari held the sword out in front of her menacingly, "I'm Akaza Akari, and I'M THE PROTAGONIST DAMNIT!"

At that, massive amounts of energy erupted from the blade and Akari charged forwards, yelling.

"No wait, stay back!" Mamushi held out her armored hands in defense, but they didn't help. Akari sliced cleanly through the Blackdagger, leaving Mamushi there in her old skimpy outfit.

Akari let out a breath and her sword stopped sparking.

Mamushi grabbed her arm, which had been cut in retaliation, and glared daggers at the red-haired girl, "You think that's the end? HA! Clearly you underestimate the power of a Time Agent!"

Mamushi hopped onto the fence that lined the edges of the roof and extended her arms outwards. She let herself fall backwards, and for a second the two thought she had really fell. However, A large black snake-like Blacksabre erupted from the ground and she hopped in it.

"I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU FOOLS TAKE ME ON IN THIS!" She yelled from inside, her voice taking on that typical booming quality.

"Tetsuya!" Akari yelled.

"_Yeah, I noticed! I'm on it!" _

The buttons on their necklaces turned blue and they quickly pressed them. In almost no time at all, their two Bladebots fell from the sky in a manner similar to the capsules.

Akari jumped in hers quickly, "Chinatsu, you don't know how to pilot that thing well yet. Let me handle this for now."

Chinatsu, not really eager to crash into anything right about now, nodded and hopped in her Bladebot. She waited to activate it unless Akari really needed her.

Akari surged forwards with her Bladebot and began shooting the gattling gun at the snake Blacksabre.

"YOU THINK SUCH A WEAK ATTACK WILL WORK AGAINST ME?" Mamushi yelled, "HOW IMPRUDENT!"

The blacksabre's mouth opened and it's fangs swung around to point forwards, then they launched out at Akari's Bladebot with an alarming speed. Akari raised her Bladebot's arms in front of the cockpit, and the two fangs exploded harmlessly on the heavy armor plating.

"I could say the same thing to you," Akari smirked.

Akari pointed her mech's energy cannon at the snake, and focused on thoughts of Chinatsu. She saw the Emotion Drive's power peak, and smiled.

"Disappear! AKARIN CANNON!" she yelled, firing the powerful beam at Mamushi.

The beam shot directly into the snakes mouth, and the whole mech convulsed.

"NOT GOOD!" Mamushi yelled from inside the mech. She ejected out in an escape pod as the defeated Blacksabre exploded and dissolved away.

Akari landed her Bladebot back on the ground and hopped out, Tetsuya congratulated her.

"_Good work, you two. Now head to the nurses and get that arm patched up before you head to your next class, alright? I'll call the Bladebots and weapon capsules back to the base!"_

Akari nodded, and as soon as the Bladebots began flying back to the base, Chinatsu broke out into a fit of laughter.

Akari looked over and cocked her head to the side, "What's so funny, China-chan?"

"Pfffft…. hahaha! 'Disappear, Akari-n Cannon!' I can't believe you actually said that!" Chinatsu laughed.

Akari pouted and stopped her foot, "A protagonist needs a cool name for her attacks, you know!"

Chinatsu smiled and shook her head, and the two of them headed off to the nurse's office before lunch was over.

* * *

**AN: And so, for the second time, Akari's actually being treated like the protagonist! She even got her first signature attack! Still, these new Blackdagger things seem like they might have the potential to be dangerous.**

**Hmmm... I wonder what happened to Sakurako and Himawari? Surely the next chapter won't possibly be focusing on them.**


	7. Episode 7: A Relentless Attack!

_**Disclaimer: I do not own YuruYuri or any of the associated characters. All other original characters that appear in this story are of my own creation.**_

* * *

**Episode 7: Relentless Attack! Our Protagonist is in Trouble!**

As Akari and Chinatsu headed into the nurse's office, they were greeted with a terrifying sight.

"Ma… MAMUSHI?" Akari yelled.

The woman was sitting in the nurse's chair, was in fact, their previous foe. As their eye's widened, she let out a sickeningly condescending laugh, and stood up from the chair, a sly look on her face.

"You really thought I would go down so easily? How cute. Allow me to tell you something! I'm on a completely different level than the Time Agent you fought yesterday!"

Both of their eyes widened, "Wh-what?"

"Recently, both the Resistance and the Time Agents have upgraded their technologies," she began, "The Agent you fought yesterday, Mantess, was overconfident in her abilities to win with her upgraded Blacksabre. I will not display the same fool-hearty confidence! My fight with you earlier was for three purposes. One, I wanted to ascertain if you would need your Bladebots to fight the prototype Blackdagger. Two, I wanted to observe your moves in combat, both in and outside of a mech. Three, I wanted to figure out how much of a threat your Bladebots were!"

Akari froze, gritting her teeth, _"So… so this whole time she was watching us!? She was observing us, and learning about how we fought?"_

"In making you believe I was defeated, I drove you out of your Bladebots and away from your weapons. You're inside, so you can't simply call for help anymore! You will be powerless against this!" She grinned, and the same black metal cocoon from earlier began forming around her. She emerged with a similar, but slightly different Blackdagger.

The two eyed their opponent in horror. She had completely outwitted them, and now they were trapped. Knowing the Blackdagger's speed, even if they ran, they wouldn't get very far.

_"Is this it?"_ Chinatsu asked herself, _"We've only been wrapped up in this insanity for a day now! Are we really going to die so quickly?"_

"Chinatsu," Akari whispered, grabbing her pink-haired girlfriend's hand, "She might have been analyzing us, but we were also analyzing her. The Blackdagger might be fast, but we were able to dodge just by side-stepping! It would win out in a footrace, but if we use our agility to our advantage, we might be able to escape to the outside!"

Chinatsu's eyes brightened, "You're right! We could easily weave out of this room before she could turn around to attack us!"

Akari and Chinatsu rushed for the door, and Mamushi smiled, "It's useless!"

Akari waited for Mamushi to get really close to them, and then she quickly swerved out the door into the empty hallway. Mamushi's eyes widened for a second, and Akari smiled.

"We did it, Chinatsu! We found her weakness!"

Suddenly, however, Mamushi put on a sly grin and her eyes gleamed, "You fell for another one of my traps! I wanted to learn about your fighting style through observing, but I realized that if I fought normally, you'd be able to do the same thing. So I deliberately kept from using the full extent of this Blackdagger's capabilities!"

Mamushi turned on her heels and began quickly catching up with them, claws bared. As she got closer, Akari realized there was truly nothing they could do in this position.

_"So, for the protagonist… this is it, huh?"_

Suddenly, however, Mamushi stopped in her tracks, and all three people present in the hallway were surprised.

"My, my," a voice spoke behind Mamushi, "It seems you forget whose room you just walked out of."

Akari and Chinatsu knew that voice, it was the school nurse. They looked up to see Hatate in a standard school nurse uniform, holding a clipboard and a strap of gauze, the end of which was unraveled and wrapped around Mamushi's left arm. She was pleasantly calm for the situation, smiling softly with her eyes closed, and bowing slightly.

"Sorry for keeping you girls waiting, I'll get that arm patched up…" The nurse's eyes shot open and her expression grew fierce, "Just as soon as I get rid of the snake someone let in."

Mamushi's eyes were wide, "W-wha…. what the hell!? This is just medical gauze, right? So… why can't I move!? The Blackdagger is completely locked up!"

Hatate smiled, "This isn't just medical gauze… it's laced with copper wires! I'm feeding a disruptive electrical charge directly into your Blackdagger!"

Mamushi frowned, "B-but… such a thing would never work on a regular-sized Blacksabre! And we've never used the Blackdaggers before! How would you have known about it?"

"The development of the Blackdaggers was a predicted move!" Hatate announced, "I figured you Time Agents would try something like this!"

Mamushi smiled, "Fine, if a Blackdagger won't work… then maybe a BLADE WILL!"

Mamushi's Blackdagger collapsed, revealing Mamushi holding a small knife in her right hand. Hatate tried to pull the gauze wrapped around her arm tighter, but Mamushi quickly cut the gauze before she could be restrained.

She charged at Hatate, smiling victoriously, "I have you now!"

Suddenly, however, the gauze strip still on her arm quickly burst into flames, and Mamushi screamed in pain as her eyes widened.

"W-what was that!? What the hell did you do?"

Hatate smirked, "I knew you were going to cut the gauze the second you lowered your defenses! I tossed a piece of flint towards the gauze where your eyes were focused, and I yanked the gauze to wrap and conceal it! The second your knife made contact with the flint, sparks touched the gauze and kindled it! Then when you came recklessly charging at me, you provided the embers with enough oxygen to ignite the gauze! Your next line is 'What kind of person are you?'"

"What kind of person are- ack!" Mamushi cut off as her eyes widened.

Akari's eyes widened, _"I thought Mamushi was cunning, but Hatate… she's on a whole different level! She's calm and collected, and she can read through Mamushi entirely."_

"My, my…" Hatate sighed as she approached Mamushi, "Are you really done yet? You've only burnt your arm, after all!"

Mamushi was still on the ground, cradling her arm. Once Hatate grew close enough to her, however, she shot upwards, knife still in hand.

"I won't lose so easy, you crazy nurse!" she yelled, thrusting her knife forwards. Hatate swiftly wrapped her arm around Mamushi's, knocked the knife out of her hand, and karate chopped Hatate's shoulder, dislocating her arm.

The woman, having two injured arms and nothing to lean back on, gritted her teeth and climbed to her feet.

"Don't think for a second that this is over, nurse! I'll… I'll crush you the next time I see you!"

Mamushi used her left arm to grab a smoke bomb hidden on the inside of her shirt. She threw it at the ground and used the distraction to make her escape.

When the smoke cleared, the bell rang as well, and the Hatate smiled, "Akari, I can take a look at your arm now. I'll write you a pass back to class, okay?"

Akari's head was spinning. Finding out the school nurse was a member of the Resistance, the battle with Mamushi. After she had her arm patched up, she passed out completely, and Chinatsu stayed with her for the entire next period until she woke up.

* * *

Mamushi was not done yet.

The woman yelled angrily as she looked upon the school. "Fools! I won't be beaten so easily, damnit!"

She slammed her shoulder against a nearby tree and relocated it. Giving it a few tentative turns, she smiled. Then she held up her other arm, and the burns slowly faded, revealing healthy skin. She tested her arm by punching the said tree, and even though her knuckles were scraped in the process, she smiled.

_"The second-years are still away on their trip to Kyoto… meaning that I can catch Akari and Chinatsu alone at the abandoned clubhouse… then they'll pay for escaping with their lives! I'll show them what relying too heavily on other people can do!"_

* * *

"What the…? IT'S FIXED!?"

Akari and Chinatsu looked upon the Amusement Club's room in amazement. Yesterday, the roof had been completely destroyed by Akane's Bladebot, but now the roof was fine.

Chinatsu smiled, "Must be some Time Agent trick to prevent people from noticing their presence."

Akari wasn't so sure._ "Wouldn't Miraisei or Tetsuya have mentioned that in their explanation yesterday?"_

"CHINATSU! Stay away from the club room!" Akari yelled.

As Chinatsu opened the door, she turned around, confused, and let out a "hm?" in response. Just then however, she saw something in the corner of her eye and she barely had time to dodge before Mamushi quickly rushed out, clad in her Blackdagger once more, and slashed the air where she once stood.

"You again!? They just don't know when to give up, do they, Akari?" Chinatsu yelled.

"Give up? I never gave up! I told you, didn't I? I would crush you the next time I saw you!" Mamushi yelled out, slashing at Chinatsu once more.

"TETSUYA!" Akari called, "We'll need weapons again!"

When Akari's request was met with silence, her eyes widened.

Mamushi laughed, "Earlier, I heard you talking to someone else while we were fighting… and then you got the weapons that can pierce the Blackdagger's armor! Before you arrived, I set up a signal jammer inside your club room! I'm not going to let you enter that room!"

Akari frowned. "_We've seen how perceptive Mamushi can be… we can't outwit her… and on top of that, it would be impossible to know for sure what's in the club room once we enter. For all we know, the signal jammer isn't even in there… We can't beat her unarmed at all, and I'd bet the buttons wouldn't work either! Is this really it?"_

"Now, bow before the Time Agents and accept your fate! Humanity will continue to be ensnared! The Resistance will be crushed! Anyone who knows of the Time Loop will be hunted down and killed! No mercy will be shown! Even to middle schoolers, even to children! Now… for my humiliation earlier today, DIE!"

Before Akari even knew what was happening, she saw Mamushi start to charge towards her at an alarming rate.

In the next moment, a dark blue Type-L Bladebot fell from the sky and landed between Akari and Mamushi. It was shiny, freshly painted, and had the name "Sunrazor" running down it on the frame of the cockpit. Both of the short, stubby arms were replaced entirely with guns on pivots, and the legs had blades on the knees.

"If you think I'm going to let you kill my friends while they're defenseless, you're dead wrong!"

Both Akari's and Chinatsu's eyes widened. "That voice!"

"HIMAWARI!"

* * *

**AN: So, apparently Himawari knows how to pilot Bladebots now, and was clearly taught proper dramatic timing by Hatate. This one's a bit shorter than the other chapters, but I wanted to cut it off here for dramatic purposes.**

**Also, Akari and Chinatsu are pretty defenseless when they're not on the school roof, huh? The Resistance should probably do something about that in the future.**


	8. Episode 8: Power of Resolve!

_**Disclaimer: I do not own YuruYuri or any of the associated characters. All other original characters that appear in this story are of my own creation.**_

* * *

**Episode 8: The Power of Resolve! Victory at Last!**

"How foolish…" Mamushi smiled, "Trying to play hero, are we? It's useless!"

Himawari pointed one of Sunrazor's gun arms at the Time Agent and fired away, but Mamushi suddenly disappeared. In the next second, she appeared on Sunrazor's shoulder and with a swift slice took off the gun arm that was firing at her.

"She's too fast!" Chinatsu yelled, eyes wide.

Himawari turned as Mamushi jumped off to knee her with one of her blades, but Mamushi simply blocked, breaking the knee blade in the process.

"It's useless! You're too weak to fight someone like me!" Mamushi exclaimed, charging at the much larger Sunrazor. She whirled around and kicked it, and to everyone's surprise, the Bladebot went flying and fell over.

Akari gaped at the scene, "H-how… how strong is she!?"

"I told you before!" Mamushi yelled, "I threw the fights we had before! I lost only because I wanted to! I lured you into a false sense of security! This is my true power!"

Himawari was not, however, ready to accept defeat, "I… I won't lose so easily!"

Sunrazor got up slowly and pointed its other gun, which was an energy rifle, at Mamushi. She let off a few shots, but Mamushi dodged them all swiftly.

"You can't hit me with such a slow attack." Mamushi taunted.

Akari gritted her teeth. Even fighting a Bladebot, Mamushi was an untouchable opponent.

_"Even before, when I did that… weird thing with the sword... was that part of her losing, or did I actually cut the Blackdagger?"_

Even as she was thinking this, Mamushi began charging at Himawari yet again. This time, however, Sunrazor kicked to counter Mamushi's punch, and both were knocked back a few feet.

Mamushi recovered first and rushed around Sunrazor on the side missing a gun, and leapt at it.

Himawari smiled, "We got you!"

Mamushi's eyes widened as she saw Sunrazor's cockpit open. Hatate, who had been inside the cockpit the entire time, leapt at Mamushi with her special gauze in hand. Mamushi couldn't do anything in the air, so when Hatate passed her she wrapped the gauze around her leg. As she handed on the ground, she pulled at the gauze. Mamushi, who couldn't move, slammed hard into the ground.

"H-how did you…!?" Mamushi exclaimed.

Hatate smiled, "The secret behind your Blackdagger's defenses is an energy field. I noticed it earlier when we were in the hallway. That's why physical attacks won't work against you… However, it stands to reason from the strength of the field that if hit enough times, or with an energy attack, the field would be unable to hold up for long. As Himawari's Sunrazor has two arm-weapons, a gattling gun and an energy rifle, it stands to reason that the first thing you would do is try to take out one or the other. I waited in the cockpit from the very beginning, knowing this. You would take out one of the guns, then later exploit that side as an opening!"

Mamushi's eyes widened, "D-damn… damn you! I'll just cut this damn gauze again!"

Himawari turned Sunrazor around so the energy rifle was facing Mamushi, "That won't work, Mamushi! You're facing two opponents this time!"

Hatate smiled, "If you remove your Blackdagger to cut the gauze, you'll be completely unprotected from the rifle's fire… but if you don't cut the gauze, you'll be immobile anyway, and your energy field won't hold up long against the energy shots anyway. Either way, it's checkmate."

Mamushi smiled, "Tell me… Himawari… just how strong is your resolve?"

Himawari wasn't sure how to respond.

"Know this… there is little difference between Time Agents and humans. Time Agents have been modified and altered, but they're essentially the same as humans. If you fire that energy rifle at me… you'd be doing nothing less than committing murder!"

Hatate got angry, "So that's your game!?"

Mamushi smiled, "Now… let's see just how much resolve your friend in the mech has!"

Mamushi removed her Blackdagger and raised her hand to cut the gauze once more. Himawari aimed Sunrazor's gun at the woman, but she faltered, and she couldn't bring herself to pull the trigger. Mamushi smiled and sliced the gauze, then quickly re-equipped her Blackdagger, and Hatate gritted her teeth.

The school's nurse leapt on top of Sunrazor's shoulder and crouched there, "Himawari… understand. Time Agents may have once been human. But they have long since cast away their humanity. They turned their backs on humans in exchange for power and agelessness. They are selfish creatures with inhuman power. Do not treat them like humans."

Himawari took a deep breath and nodded, "Right."

Satisfied with Himawari's response, Hatate jumped off Sunrazor and landed on the ground. At her feet was the blade Mamushi broke off of Sunrazor earlier. She picked it up and wrapped gauze around one of the broken edges so she could hold it safely.

"Let me show you just what sets humans and Time Agents apart!" She exclaimed. A similar energy from the one that encased Akari's blade earlier burst forth from the blade, but instead of taking a form of pure energy, it condensed and began floating towards Hatate's hand. As she grabbed it, it solidified and turned into a pair of eyeglasses, which she placed on her face, "This is my Resolve! Enhanced Perception!"

Akari's eyes widened, "W-what?"

Mamushi smiled, "So you put on some glasses? Who cares?"

Hatate smiled, "Don't underestimate my Resolve!"

Mamushi smiled, charging at Hatate at blinding speeds. However, Hatate managed to dodge her strike. Mamushi's eyes widened and she whirled around for another attack, but Hatate dodged that one as well.

"How!? You're not faster than me!" Mamushi asked, incredulous.

Hatate smiled, "I can read all of your attacks. All of your movements! Even if you're faster than me, it can't possibly matter if I know every move you're going to make."

Mamushi's eyes widened, "You can read all my moves!? Impossible!"

Mamushi jumped to the side to strike again, but Hatate knew it was coming. She swung sideways and hit the armor of the Blackdagger with her makeshift weapon, and smiled.

"You're next line is, 'Damn you, why can't I move!?'" Hatate smirked.

Mamushi gritted her teeth, "Damn you, why can't I move - ah!"

"Haven't you figured it out already!" Hatate smiled, "I have my gauze wrapped around the blade. The metal's still conducting the disruptive current!"

Mamushi glared at the nurse through the visor of her Blackdagger's helmet, "You… you bitch!"

"NOW, HIMAWARI!"

Himawari aimed Sunrazor's energy rifle at Mamushi, and this time, she didn't hesitate. She fired two energy shots at their enemy. The first one was absorbed by the energy field, but just barely, and the second one blasted right through the field. Mamushi was sent flying through the doors of the club room.

"We got her!" Himawari smiled.

However, the club room began shaking, and Mamushi's Snake Blacksabre from before emerged.

"Damn!" Hatate yelled, "How many times do we have to beat her!?"

"I'M NOT BEATEN YET! THE TRUE STRENGTH OF A TIME AGENT IS THEIR BLACKSABRE!"

Himawari didn't let Mamushi start attacking. She immediately rushed forwards, trying to damage the Blacksabre with her remaining knee blade.

"Himawari, wait!" Hatate yelled, trying to stop what was about to happen next.

Mamushi's eyes gleamed, "GOT YOU!"

The snake Blacksabre coiled itself around Sunrazor once, and the head wrapped inwards. Large, rounded bars shot out of the body of the snake and formed a caged dome around Sunrazor.

"Now even if one of your friends manages to get their Bladebot, you won't be able to combine, and there's no way you'll beat me alone!"

The inside of the snake Blacksabre's body was lined with multiple guns, and they all began their barrage of attacks on Himawari. From the outside, everyone was powerless.

"Akari!" Chinatsu yelled, "We have to do something!"

"What? What can we possibly do in this situation!?" Akari asked, collapsing.

"Hatate, what should we-" Chinatsu began, but then noticed that the nurse had vanished.

Meanwhile, on the inside, Himawari was in trouble. Her mech's armor wouldn't hold up to the numerous guns forever. She managed to blast a few with her energy rifle, but there were just too many.

"YOU'RE COMPLETELY DEFENSELESS AGAINST ME!" Mamushi taunted.

Suddenly, however, Hatate jumped on top of the cage and smiled, "Himawari, catch!"

Hatate threw something at Himawari, and Himawari opened her cockpit long enough to catch it. She looked in her hands and noticed a while necklace like her own, with a blue button in the center.

"While you were fighting in here, I was disabling the signal jammer!" Press it!"

Himawari nodded and pressed the button. Within a matter of seconds, Hatate's Bladebot appeared in the sky above them. The paint wasn't as fresh, but the letters White Cross could be

Mamushi barely had enough time to exclaim, "W-WHAT!?" before the Bladebot smashed through the cage she had trapped Himawari in. The cockpit opened up and Hatate jumped in quickly.

"Let's finish this!" Hatate exclaimed. Himawari nodded, and the two transformed in preparation of combining.

As their Bladebots docked, they exclaimed, "Bladebot SYNC! White Razor!"

Hatate looked at the monitor and smiled, "85% sync, that's not bad considering this is your first time Syncing up in battle."

Hatate turned her attention towards Mamushi, "Let's finish this quickly!"

Himawari nodded, "Yeah!"

Mamushi tried to attack them, but they were too fast for her. White Razor reached one of its hands down and grabbed the remaining blade off of it's knee. Hatate aimed and threw it swiftly. It embedded itself into the neck of Mamushi's Blacksabre.

"W-WHAT!?" Mamushi yelled.

White Razor charged forwards and kicked it in further, cutting off the Mamushi's connection from the rest of the mech.

White Razor's other arm was a powerful energy rifle, and as Hatate whirled the mech around to aim it directly at the head of Mamushi's Blacksabre. From inside, Mamushi's eyes widened.

"You're next line is 'I CAN'T BELEIVE THIS IS HOW I LOSE!'" Hatate yelled as the rifle charged.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HOW I LOSE- EH!?"

The rifle fired directly into the cockpit, and the explosion that ensued threw Mamushi through the air and she landed on roughly next to Akari.

The rest of the Blacksabre began to dissolve away, and Mamushi looked up angrily at the red-haired girl she landed near. She reached up, possibly to attack Akari, but her arms began to turn to dust.

"Damn you all! Know this… if you think it's over, you're wrong! I'm the absolute weakest of the Elite Time Agents! The bottom rung! Everyone else you face will be ten times stronger than me! You better hope you're ready!"

As her body began to disintegrate and blow off in the wind, she began cackling maniacally, and even after her body had blown away entirely, everyone present could still hear that laugh echoing on the wind for a few moments after.

* * *

Akari was lying in her bed, awake and staring up at the ceiling.

She looked over at her dresser, on which were now two items. Her necklace, which was straightforward enough, and a metal bracelet.

She recalled the conversation from earlier. Shortly after Mamushi was beaten, the second years all showed up at the clubroom, alarmed at the state. After a brief discussion, Miraisei contacted them through the bracelets and called them back to the base.

* * *

**Earlier that Day, At The Base**

"Today, we will be giving you proper Bladebot Training! But first, I'm going to address something that happened earlier today," Tetsuya began.

Miraisei barged in on his explanation. "Akari, you said when you grabbed the blade of your sword, it began emitting this strange energy, right?"

Akari nodded, "I wasn't sure why it happened, I figured it was a built-in function of the sword."

Tetsuya shook his head, "That wasn't the sword's power, that was your own."

Akari's eyes widened, "W-what?"

Miraisei smiled, "It's a strange power. Even we don't know much about how it works. We call it Resolve. I'd say something cliche like it's some sort of latent power locked away within all humans or something like that, but mysteriously enough, they only seem to work when channeled through this."

She held up a sheet of metal. It looked like the same kind of material their weapons and the blades on Sunrazor's knees were made out of. It seemed innocuous enough, but when Miraisei closed her eyes and focused, the same energy started radiating out of it.

"It's an alloy taken straight from the old Blacksabre scraps we managed to collect. We've done countless chemical analyses of it, but we still haven't figured out exactly what it's made out of. We're calling it X Alloy. By channeling one's will into a sample of X Alloy, they can manifest a Resolve. These Resolves can differ from person to person, depending on their personality."

"For instance," Hatate began, "My analytical nature is what causes my Resolve to manifest as Enhanced Perception, a pair of eyeglasses that allow me to read all of my opponents movements."

Tetsuya nodded, "Akari, you seem to desire to be noticed, so it makes sense that your Resolve is nothing but raw power."

He turned around and fetched something from a box, "We knew about resolves earlier, but we didn't think we'd get a chance to use them. You can't use Resolves from within Bladebots, and offensive Resolves would be useless inside one anyway."

"However, with the Blackdaggers," Miraisei began, "You might need to rely on Resolves more."

"Take these," Tetsuya replied, holding out a bunch of bracelets. "These bracelets will allow you to channel your Resolve without necessitating a weapon. Keep in mind that you're Resolve might not awaken right away. It takes a considerable amount of determination to awaken a Resolve for the first time. Often a close call or a near-death experience will be enough to manifest your Resolve, but sometimes you can force it out without that happening."

"Now," Miraisei smiled, "Let's train, da ze!"

* * *

**Present, Akari's Bedroom**

Akari looked back up at her ceiling and frowned.

_"I didn't know being a protagonist was so intense…"_

As she thought this, her eyelids grew heavy, and she closed her eyes, finally succumbing to her desire to sleep.

* * *

**AN: So, our heroes finally take down Mamushi, only to be told that she's the weakest of the Elite Agents.**

**Just what lies in store for our beloved protagonist, Akari? **

**Well, we won't find out next Chapter, because that one's not about her. **

_**"Akari~n"**_


	9. Episode 9: Life at the Base!

_**Disclaimer: I do not own YuruYuri or any associated characters. The original characters that appear in this story are of my own creation.**_

* * *

**Episode 9: Life at the Base! The Kickass Family of the Resistance!**

Miraisei crawled out of bed tiredly and pulled herself to her feet. She was wearing little more than a loose-fitting t-shirt and a pair of black panties, and her hair, despite it's shortness, was all hells of messy.

Sleeping at the base, among other things, made it easier for her to start off her day immediately with little disruption. The problem is that it seldom gave her the time to transition out of her drowsy, morning state.

Still, there was one thing she could always count on for that, and that was the coffee machine she had placed in the main room of the crew quarters. Without hesitation, she left her room despite how she was dressed and went over to retrieve her normal cup of coffee.

What she wasn't expecting to see when she did so, however, was Hatate, fully dressed and presumably ready to head out to the school, standing near the machine. As Hatate noticed her leader, undressed and half-asleep, she quickly turned around, and Miraisei thought she saw the hints of a blush appear on Hatate's face.

Miraisei shrugged it off and groggily greeted her comrade with a, "Mornin' da ze…"

Her response was a flustered, "G-good morning Miraisei!"

Miraisei, whose eyes were already half-lidded, looked at the resident nurse badass and leaned in closer, making sure that her loose t-shirt was loose enough around the collar, and smirked, "Whatcha doin'?"

"I'm making coffee and getting ready for my day job…" Hatate replied, red-faced. Miraisei noted she was making a conscientious effort to avoid looking anywhere near her chest.

"Ah, that's so like you, Hatate… always reliable, da ze!" Miraisei smiled, slinging her arm around the girl.

"D-drink your coffee, 'kickass leader'. You should be fully attentive for work too, after all!" Hatate ordered, still a bit embarrassed.

She thrusted a styrofoam cup of hot coffee into Miraisei's hand and headed off without another word. Miraisei looked down at the cup. She wasn't accustomed to having other people making her coffee, and she was quite particular about how she had it. She tentatively raised the cup to her lips and took a sip.

_"This is… This is exactly how I like it!"_

Miraisei looked up towards the door Hatate headed out of and smiled, then turned to get ready.

* * *

Tetsuya was not a morning person.

Maybe it ran in the family, but every time Tetsuya woke up, he felt more tired than when he fell asleep. Of course, Tetsuya never got enough sleep anyway, and whenever he had a day off he would invariably sleep in until the early afternoon to make up for his lack of sleep on other days.

Long story short, Tetsuya drank coffee.

His sister had a coffee machine placed in the main room of the crew quarters, and Tetsuya did nothing less of abuse it's use in the mornings, which almost always started out by quickly chugging a cup black, and then making a more inviting cup to carry around throughout the day.

It wasn't often he met anyone on his early morning quest, but today was different. As he left his room, he heard the door to his sister's bedroom close, who he imagined probably just made a similar trip.

Then Haru came out, dressed in her usual, somewhat tomboyish outfit, and smiling, full of energy.

The first thing Tetsuya wanted to know was how she managed to wake up so energetic and upbeat.

The second thing Tetsuya wanted to know was why hadn't she spoken to Nana at all yet.

He poured his typical first cup and she smiled, coming up behind him.

"Good Morning, Tetsuya!" she greeted, bowing politely.

"Mornin'" He replied groggily.

The two had known each other since they were little, and often this meant small talk was pointless. There wasn't really much Tetsuya didn't know about Haru, and he was pretty sure Haru thought the same.

After a few moments of silence and blowing on his coffee, Tetsuya chugged the entire cup. The first time Haru had seen him do this, she had asked him how he didn't burn his mouth, to which he replied that if he drank it fast enough, it wouldn't be in his mouth long enough to burn it. Just one example of how small talk was unnecessary.

"So," he began after he finished, "What's up between you and Nana."

Haru blushed something fierce and stuttered, "W-wh-what?"

Tetsuya sighed, running his fingers through his long hair, that hadn't been tied back yet, and sighed, "It's no use being coy, I've known you long enough to see when you act differently. Yesterday, while Nana was staying here, you barely said three words to her."

"So, you noticed… huh?" Haru asked, looking down, "Don't tell her this, but… I have a crush on her."

"So, I was right, then…"

"We've known Nana for a while now… I guess, over time, I've sorta developed feelings for her… I was going to tell her senior year of college, but I couldn't work up the courage. For the most part, we haven't really seen much of her over the years, so yesterday, when she acted uncomortable around me… I got discouraged… I wound up not saying anything to her at all…"

Tetsuya wasn't known for his counseling, in fact, Tetsuya had, for the most part, been the deadpan snarker of their group, after all.

Yet Haru was his friend, and she'd constantly confide in him her problems, expecting a comforting response in spite of who she was talking to, and Tetsuya wouldn't disappoint her.

Well, maybe he would, but with Haru, it was better than trying to falsely encourage her.

"You know, she's not the most social of women, but it is possible that she could've found someone else in the three years since she graduated," Tetsuya pointed out.

Haru's eyes widened for a second, then she frowned, "You went to her apartment to invite her the other week, right? Did you see her with anyone?"

Tetsuya shrugged, "She said she had plans for that night, but I didn't see her already with anyone. Can't tell you what she was doing. I suggest asking her yourself if you're so curious."

Haru blushed, "I… I can't! What if she asks me why I want to know… besides, I'm not really sure I want to know the answer right now…"

Tetsuya sighed, "I don't see why avoiding the situation is better than finding out. If she has someone, then at least you can know and move on."

Haru frowned, "I… I just… I don't know what to do… but I don't want to do that…"

Tetsuya scratched the back of his head and poured his other coffee, adding sugar and creamer to the works this time. As he stirred, he replied, "Look, at the very least, try to talk to her about something. For all I know, she was just uncomfortable because this is a new situation for her. Now that she's been here, maybe she'll loosen up to everyone."

Haru nodded and out of the blue hugged Tetsuya, who nearly spilled his coffee, "Thanks…"

"Huh?" Tetsuya looked down at Haru, who had her head on his chest.

"You're advice is always a bit harsh, but in the end, you're always right. Thanks for listening."

Tetsuya sighed and smiled, and Haru let go and ran out of the crew quarters.

* * *

Miraisei walked through the bustling steets, sighing to herself. Sure, maybe she was supposed to be preparing for another academic club officer's meeting. Sure, maybe she had managed to shirk her responsibilities off on Tetsuya, pointing out he was "better at making our ridiculous requests sound reasonable" and that Miraisei would likely get booted from her position if she was allowed to write anything for the meeting.

But Miraisei needed some down time every once in a while, so she let her brother do the dirty work and she would make it sound all nice and confident, and meanwhile all she needed to do was wander around and think.

She found her mind unusually focused on Hatate lately, and this frustrated her somewhat. Not that thinking of Hatate was a bad thing, but the point of her down time was that it was meant to be used for thinking about multiple things, not just her friend.

Of course, things seldom go as planned, and as she left the more busy streets and came to a more isolated area, two Time Agents clad in Blackdaggers jumped from the trees and blocked the path on both sides.

"So, you bastards wanna fight, da ze?" Miraisei replied, immediately shifting into a battle-ready stance.

"You, Miraisei, have been identified as the leader of the Resistance." one of them spoke.

"Prepare to be eliminated for your crimes!" the other one announced.

Miraisei narrowed her eyes and smiled, "You guys should've brought bigger mechs. Your puny daggers will never reach me, da ze!"

The two charged at her. The first one tried a roundhouse kick to the face, but Miraisei grabbed him and flung him into his partner, who had been charging in for a punch. They both jumped to their feet and the first Time Agent began charging an arm-mounted cannon.

Miraisei charged forwards and when the cannon fired, she jumped out of the way of the shot and slammed her knee into his chest armor. To his surprise, it cracked, and Miraisei smiled.

She whirled around and punched the cracked area of the armor, and her arm completely broke through. She wasn't done yet, though. Using the hole as a handle, she picked him up and threw him violently into the other Time Agent. The impact was strong enough to crack the other Blackdagger's armor as well.

"Im… impossible!" they both said simultaneously, looking at the cracks in their armor.

Miraisei stood up and smiled, "You heard I was the leader of the Resistance, huh? Well tell you're damn Time Agent Conglomerate or whatever the hell you guys have that I'm Ozu Fuckin' Miraisei, kickass leader of the Resistance who can beat the shit out of your shitty mechs barehanded any day of the week, da ze!"

The Time Agents glared at their enemy briefly before they both retreated into the forest. However, they weren't giving up. Instead, they were fetching a Blacksabre. This one was a giant turtle with another head instead of a tail.

"YOU MANAGED TO BUST THOUGH OUR BLACKDAGGERS..." one began.

"...BUT THE ARMOR ON OUR BLACKSABRE IS ON AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT LEVEL!" the other finished.

Miraisei smiled, "You might have a cool mech there, but my Resolve is stronger, da ze!"

Miraisei's bracelet began to glow, and then, just as it erupted into energy, it stopped.

"FOOLISH HUMAN, YOU'VE CHANGED NOTHING!" they both spoke together, swinging one of their Blacksabre's clawed hands down at Miraisei. She smiled and held up her hand towards it.

"YOU'RE TRYING TO STOP OUR ATTACK!? IT'S USELESS!" they both shouted.

Yet even as they said this, their Blacksabre's arm met with Miraisei's and, with an explosion of energy, stopped completely.

"W-WHAT!? IMPOSSIBLE!" They yelled.

"That's the power of my Resolve," Miraisei replied, "Spirit Armor. As long as I have resolve and a fighting chance to win, my Armor can't be pierced. Yours, however…"

Miraisei charged forwards and punched a small hole through the heavy armor shell in their mech, and they both panicked.

"BRO!" one of them shouted, "LET'S SPLIT!"

"RIGHT!" the other one answered. Miraisei's eyes widened as one of the turtle heads shot out from the main mech, revealing it to be a lizard-like Blacksabre.

"Fightin' two guys in Blacksabres at the same time just ain't fair, da ze!" Miraisei complained.

The problem with the lizard Blacksabre is that it was much, much faster, and Miraisei had a hard time keeping up. The turtle Blacksabre, as well, began bombarding her with attacks, and with each one her Spirit Armor blocked, she felt it getting weaker.

"Damn, soon they'll be able to-"

She was cut off as the lizard Blacksabre managed to pierce through her Armor and leave a few gashes in her arm and side.

"WHAT'S THE MATTER, HUMAN? YOU'RE UNBREAKABLE ARMOR SEEMS TO HAVE FAILED YOU!" they both taunted.

Miraisei gritted her teeth and pressed the button on her necklace, and sure enough, her Bladebot, named Spark, landed near her and she hopped in.

"I ain't done yet, assholes!" she yelled, smiling. She quickly kicked the lizard Blacksabre into the turtle Blacksabre, and then stomped on both of them.

She then noticed the whole she had left in the armor earlier, and used that as a weak point in the turtle mech. She kicked the area hard with her Bladebot, leaving a sizable dent, then kicked it again, this time making sure to break parts of the armor. She then lifted it up and dropped it neatly on the lizard Blacksabre and stomped on both of them, crushing both mechs in the process.

"I am OZU! FUCKIN'! MIRAISEI!" Miraisei yelled as their mechs blew up, "THE KICKASS LEADER OF THE RESISTANCE!"

* * *

Miraisei, for obvious reasons, opted not to go to the meeting today.

Obviously people would ask why she was bandaged and bleeding, and she didn't feel like making up another crazy excuse for her injuries. So instead she told Tetsuya to tell them she was sick and rested up in the infirmary.

Hatate was there, of course. It was after school and Hatate seemed to be filling out paperwork at her desk. Miraisei could never once figured out why Hatate had this incredible drive to work. Miraisei herself was fairly lazy when it came to doing things she didn't want to do.

Beating the shit out of Time Agents, among certain other violent activities, were definitely not included under things she didn't want to do.

At any rate, this scenario wasn't rare. Often Miraisei would show off, leading to an increase in unnecessary injury. Miraisei would merely just brush it off as her "Having a bit of fun."

Hatate was well aware of Miraisei's reckless behavior. She had countless scars running up and down her torso, arms, and legs, from her constant fighting and injuries. Still, if Hatate's job was for anyone's sake, it was definitely Miraisei's.

Hatate opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it after a few moments of silence. Miraisei noticed this, and took the initiative.

"Ya know, Hatate, I can always count on ya to patch me back up after a fight, da ze!" she smiled.

Hatate nodded, the faintest hint of red appearing on her cheeks.

"I mean it!" Miraisei continued, "You've probably done this for me way too many times to count. I gotta admit, most people wouldn't have as much patience."

Hatate _wanted_ to say that no matter how beat up Miraisei got, she'd always be their to patch her up at the end. Hatate _wanted_ to say that she had so much patience for Miraisei because she meant so much to her. Hatate _wanted_ to stop hiding the truth.

Hatate _wanted_ to confess to the damn woman already, because being so close, yet so far away was driving her insane.

But she didn't. She didn't say anything aside from a, "It's no big deal. Taking care of injuries is my job, you know."

* * *

Tetsuya had just sat through the most annoying meeting ever, and without Miraisei there, he was only able to say about half as much as he wanted.

So now, he was resting on the couch of the crew quarters main room, staring at the ceiling vents and debating whether napping at 7 in the evening was really worth it at this point.

It was to this scene that Haru was greeted with when she returned to the crew quarters.

The white-haired girl was always cheery and mild-tempered, so much so that even though he had been her friend for a while, and despite what he had told her this morning, Tetsuya still found it incredibly hard to read her true emotions.

He decided that she could direct any conversation they would have, and after a brief, "Hey" he fell silent once more, waiting to see if she'd talk to him at all.

She didn't, which wasn't abnormal for them. They could sit in a room together for a good hour without saying a word to each other, then start talking as if they hadn't just bathed in silence for an extended period of time.

Sometimes, conversation wouldn't arise. The two would just sit near each other and to their own thing, and they'd still call it hanging out with each other, because that's how the two operated sometimes.

When she took a seat on the floor near the couch, he wondered briefly if she was about to start a conversation, but instead she leaned back against one of the armrests and closed her eyes.

It took Tetsuya a while to realize she was asleep, and opted to do the same, letting his eyelids close once more.

When Miraisei returned to the crew quarters, bandaged up and good to go, per nurse's orders, she found Tetsuya and Haru both asleep in the main room. Having little-to-no clue about Haru's feelings for Nana, she smiled and shook her head.

She had already eaten, so she returned to her room quickly and changed out of her day clothes. She collapsed onto the bed and passed out, thinking about the day and the future in store.

* * *

**AN: This episode focused a bit more on the lives of and the relationships between our older Resistance members, specifically Miraisei and Tetsuya. I feel like they haven't gotten enough attention as of late, what with the story revolving heavily around the middle schoolers. So this chapter was a break from that. We still get to see Time Agents get their asses kicked, though.**


	10. Episode 10: Reality Check

_**Disclaimer: I do not own YuruYuri or any associated characters. The original characters that appear in this story are of my own creation.**_

* * *

**Episode 10: Reality Check - The Dangers of Fighting**

Kyouko had been absolutely infuriating as of late.

To be fair, Ayano was a _bit _excited to see how their newly obtained skills would help, but ultimately, the fact that they were middle-schoolers fighting for the sake of humanity against creatures who were definitely not human and wanted them dead ensured that she was not flat-out looking forwards to her next fight.

Kyouko, unfortunately, did not share this same sentiment.

"Don't be excited, baka!" Ayano chided. She was walking alongside her girlfriend in a remote part of the town, twirling her Bladebot necklace to boot. She might as well have had a neon sign on her saying "Come get us, Time Agents".

And yet, somehow, they managed to avoid confrontation so far.

Ayano, under any other circumstance, might have even called this setting "romantic". They were alone, near a river bank, and the sun was just low enough to start casting the first signs of soft, golden hues across the mostly blue sky.

"How can I not be!" Kyouko replied, "Akari, Chinatsu, and even Himawari got to use their Bladebots already! When's it gonna be our turn!"

Ayano could've pointed out that Chinatsu had merely sat stationary in her Bladebot as Akari fought, but instead she opted for the more abrupt version, "If you say something like that, you'll only tempt fate."

Suddenly, a shark-finned Blackdagger emerged from the river, the Time Agent from within smirked as if mocking them for doing exactly that.

Kyouko smiled, "Hell yeah, I've been waiting for this!"

Ayano rolled her eyes and got ready to summon her Bladebot. Before she could reach for her necklace, however, Kyouko stops her.

"Hey, Ayano, let's use our Resolves!"

Ayano frowned, "We haven't awakened those yet, baka! Are you trying to get yourself killed."

Kyouko smiled, letting go of her hand and pressing her lips to Ayano's forehead, "I'll be fine, I'm Toshino Kyouko, after all. If you want to summon your Bladebot and wait until we drive out their big guns, go ahead."

Ayano sighed, "I'm your girlfriend, baka. I'm going to stand by your side, obviously!"

"Ugh, you guys make me wanna puke!" the Time Agent replied, "I ain't gonna let ya do any more of yer gushy shit!"

Kyouko turned and glared daggers at their opponent, "You piss me off."

Ayano smiled, realizing that Kyouko, for what it was worth, could be unintentionally very romantic sometimes.

The Time Agent wasted no more time charging at his opponents. He leapt straight for Kyouko at first, who was barely able to dodge his first attack.

"Wow, he's fast!" Kyouko noted out loud.

When the Time Agent headed for Ayano, the red-head wasn't entirely prepared, and she wound up nearly finding herself impaled on the long rapier their foe wielded. Instead, however, she found that the world around her had come to a halt. While it only seemed to affect a certain area, as she could still hear the sound of distant cars and the river flowing outside of a specific area, everyone around her, including Kyouko, was frozen in time.

At first, she wasn't quite sure what exactly had happened, and then she realized it, she had awakened her Resolve. In her hand was a pocket watch that was stopped in place.

She quickly removed herself from in front of the enemy's attack, and just in the nick of time too. As she looked down at her pocket watch, the hands began moving again, and the Time Agent finished charging at an enemy that was no longer there.

"W-what the hell was that?" he asked, shocked.

Kyouko looked at the Resolve Ayano had in her hand and pouted, "No fair! I want my Resolve!"

The Time Angent whirled around and glared at Ayano, "That was… time manipulation…!? How… how can a stinkin' human like you possess such a thing?"

Ayano smiled, "What, scared now that we humans can stop time like you? I get it now… I like the way things are between me and Kyouko… Even when the world around us collapses, I want us to be able stay like we are, I want to stop time under romantic moonlight and stay there with Kyouko… That's why this is my Resolve! Luna Dial!"

Kyouko smiled, "That's my girlfriend!"

The Time Agent snarled, "Even so, ya can't hope to defeat me!"

Charging at Kyouko at an alarming speed, the Time Agent angled his rapier towards Kyouko's chest. Kyouko managed to counter by holding up her bracelet up in the path of the rapier, but this only deflected the attack and the weapon wound up piercing her arm instead.

Pulling her arm back in pain, Kyouko cringed, "Damn!"

"Ya got lucky, human," the Time Agent replied, "Next time, ya won't!"

He changed his stance from a broad, standard fighting stance to a new, taller, less stable but more agile fencing stance.

As he thrusted forwards to fence numerous holes in Kyouko's chest, A powerful laser erupted from behind a few trees and knocked the rapier out of the Time Agent's hand.

At first, Ayano assumed that the blast had come from a Bladebot's weapon, but when she looked over at said forested area, she was greeted with a surprising sight. Haru, whose hand was glowing with blue energy matching the color of the laser from earlier, and Tetsuya, holding a sword.

"You two are here?" Kyouko asked, almost forgetting that she had just nearly been impaled.

Haru nodded and bowed politely, and Tetsuya smiled.

"Just in the nick of time… huh?" Tetsuya replied, a knowing look on his face.

Ayano let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, and the Time Agent glared at all of them. With these new battle-ready opponents, a Blackdagger would be sorely outclassed.

"Ya think this is the end?" he asked indignantly.

"Of course not," Kyouko smiled, "You still gotta bring out your Blacksabre!"

As the Time Agent dove back into the river, he let out the faintest hints of a maniacal smile. A few moments later, A giant shark Blacksabre came rising out of the water. The catch; this Blacksabre could hover, allowing it to move swiftly even out of water.

Kyouko had already pressed her Bladebot necklace, and Ayano was not far behind. When the new units landed, the two took a few moments to appreciate their mechs.

Kyouko's was a Yellow Type-A, and had "Phantom Sun" written as it's name on the side of the cockpit. One of the arms was replaced entirely with a blade, and the other one had a missile-launcher at the end of it. Ayano's was a light purple Type-L, and was named "Violet Rose". The two short arms were replaced with energy rifles, and the legs had spiked knees.

As Kyouko hopped into the cockpit of hers, she looked at Ayano, "You better think of me while piloting that. I know I'll be thinking of you."

Ayano blushed and hopped into her Bladebot. As she grabbed the handles of the mech, she hesitated a bit before charging forwards to fight the shark.

Kyouko, having absolutely no concept of tact, went for the more straightforward approach. She spammed missiles at their enemy immediately. Unfortunately, the Blacksabre was fast and agile, and managed to dodge them all with barely any effort.

Without wasting any movement, the Blacksabre slammed it's tail into Kyouko's Phantom Sun, knocking the large Bladebot backwards. Ayano immediately began firing energy shots at it, but the Time Agent inside seemed unfazed.

"Damn!" Kyouko replied, "Ayano, let's fuse!"

Ayano blushed, "E-eh?"

Kyouko smiled, "Combining! Akari said that after Nurse Hatate and Himawari combined, they pretty much curb-stomped the snake lady."

Ayano nodded, "Alright, then, I'm ready!"

Kyouko smiled and the two Bladebots began to transform in preparation for combining.

Just then, however, the Blacksabre came back around for another attack and blasted away at the head of the Type-L. As the head was an important part of the docking procedure, the subsequent fusion didn't go so well.

Kyouko checked her monitor, "Huh, only 15%?"

Ayano frowned, "I think the docking port was damaged with that last attack!"

Kyouko tried to move the combined Bladebot, but to no avail. They were completely immobilized by how poorly they were synced.

"I can't move at all! I can't undock either! I think the damn thing's jammed or something!" Kyouko exclaimed.

The shark Blacksabre wound up for another attack, this time taking advantage of the fact that Kyouko and Ayano wouldn't be able to dodge anyway. It came charging towards Kyouko's cockpit, and the jaw clamped down, ripping a hole in the cockpit and shattering the windshield.

The next bite bent the metal frame, and one more bite brought the mech's serrated teeth dangerously close to Kyouko.

"I don't want to die here… Ayano!"

The voice tore at Ayano. There was absolutely nothing she could do, and yet she could hear it in Kyouko's voice. She was crying. She was terrified and crying and angry at herself that she couldn't be more useful.

The Blacksabre reeled back one more time, then went to deliver the finishing blow.

It never came.

They looked up, and Haru's light blue Bladebot was combined with of an as-of-yet unseen orange Bladebot. The Type-X was holding the shark Blacksabre by it's tail, and the voice from the orange Bladebot spoke.

"I have great sense of timing, wouldn't you say, Haru?"

Haru let out a noise of frustration and yelled back, "I can't believe it took you so long to get here, to lazy bastard! Kyouko almost died!"

Ayano recognized the first voice as Katsu, the resident "lazy-ass butt monkey of the Resistance", as Haru had put it. He was apparently one of Hatate's old friends from High School. He had previously been assigned at Hatate's partner, but when Haru's last partner died, Hatate decided to let Haru keep fighting on the front lines, and only reserve her mechbot for dire situations.

He had been one of the pilots who took the four second-years home when they needed to get back to the hotel after their first day with the Resistance, and their interactions were nothing short of sarcastic jibes and cocky comments from Katsu, and pure, unbridled resentment and loathing from Haru.

Needless to say, Ayano was not only surprised that they were synced up well enough to move considering how much they disliked each other, but also that they were effectively curb-stomping the Blacksabre.

Haru's normally calm personality gave way to that of a fiery, angry beast, which was making short work of the shark-mech-turned-punching-bag of a Blacksabre.

Haru threw the enemy into the sky, then one of her mech's arms spit open to reveal a laser cannon. As it charged, the Time Agent managed to say "AH SHIT!". In the next moment, there was a large hole in the Blacksabre, piercing through not only the mech itself, but also the cockpit and their enemy.

As the Blacksabre exploded in the sky, Haru turned her Bladebot around towards Kyouko and Ayano, and pulled them apart manually. Haru then lowered her mech and opened her cockpit. Tetsuya hopped in

"We're bringing you two back to base. We didn't see either of you seriously injured, but it's better to be safe." Tetsuya replied.

As Ayano sat their, flying, all she could think about was Kyouko's desperate begging as their enemy nearly killed her.

* * *

Kyouko was silent.

She had been quiet ever since the afternoon, and it wasn't until she felt a warm hand on her shoulder that she said anything at all.

"What is it?" She asked.

Miraisei took a seat next to her on the roof, so that the two were now dangling their legs over the edge of Kyodai's Science Facility.

"You are a lot like me, you know that?" Miraisei pointed out.

Kyouko looked up at Miraisei in confusion, and the older girl laughed a bit.

"Energetic and detirmined…" Miraisei began, "and reckless."

Kyouko winced at that last word, but Miraisei simply laughed.

"Facing death in the face isn't easy, is it?"

Kyouko merely shook her head, and Miraisei sighed.

"But you know what? I do it anyway. Not because I want to die, but because I want to live. I stare death in the face, and then scare it off."

Kyouko smiled a bit at this, and Miraisei smiled. She was getting through.

"I know you're all excited about the concept of fighting, so you're not going to quit on us now, but here's a word of advice; Don't wish too hard for danger, don't jump into things recklessly, and pay attention to the desires of your friends," Miraisei replied, "It's going to be a hard fight, but you'll do fine next time.

Kyouko shook her head to get the thoughts of earlier that day out and nodded, "You're right! What happened today won't happen again! I'm gonna beat them for scratching up my new mech!"

Miraisei smiled, "Alright, now let's head inside. A badass like you shouldn't keep her girl waiting on her."

Kyouko's eyes widened, "Ayano!"

* * *

**Elsewhere**

Chronolith sat at his throne, face obscured, and frowned, "Another one of our agents has been defeated. I fear we will run out of footsoldiers before our plan is complete."

Lobos and Armaldol bowed simultaneously, both saying "Please let me go fight them!"

Chronolith frowned, "NO!" You will not fight them yet. We will instead wait to observe our opponents more. Then, after we have gathered sufficient data, we will declare war on them and begin a siege on Kyoto, where we believe their base to be located! IN THREE DAYS, THE RESISTANCE FALLS!"

* * *

**AN: Turns out, Bladebots aren't made out of invincibilium. Luckily, Kyouko was protected by unbreakable layers of Plot Armor and convenient timing, so there's that.**

**Anyway, I wonder what some of the lesser seen characters like Sakurako, Yui, and Chitose have been up to? Guess we'll find out in the next episode.**


	11. Episode 11: Down Time Part 1

**_Disclaimer: I do not own YuruYuri or any of the associated characters. Any original characters that appear in this story are of my own creation._  
**

* * *

**Episode 11: Down Time Part 1**

Sakurako felt helpless.

She still couldn't walk yet, her arm was broken, and even though the Resistance's medical technologies were far more advanced than any hospital, the fact remains that it would still take her a few weeks to heal her bones.

So here she sat, bored, separated by Himawari by situation, and worst of all, lonely.

"_It's okay though," _ Sakurako recalled,_ "I made this choice myself, after all…"_

* * *

**Past**

Miraisei, Hatate, and Himawari all sat around Sakurako. Himawari was panting and sweating, and Sakurako figured she had come here right after practice.

"Himawari's good," Miraisei smiled, "I can't wait to see what she's like fighting alongside you, da ze!"

"You won't see that for a while," Sakurako gritted her teeth, "Not with me like this…"

Hatate piped up, "You're wounds are healing steadily, and your family knows where you are. Himawari told them all she could without revealing the Time Loop to them. We have their approval to keep you here until you heal completely."

Sakurako frowned, "Himawari… you're gonna go and get better than me while I'm healing, aren't you? You're going to use the time I can't train to make sure you'll always be better than me!"

Himawari crossed her arms, "Sakurako! Don't turn this into a competition, okay! What does it matter if one of us is better at something than the other?"

Sakurako looked down, her hair falling over her eyes. Himawari was about to continue, but then noticed that her girlfriend's hands had drops on them. Teardrops.

"I'm completely useless like this!" she lamented, "You're going to go out there and fight, even though you're always the more mature one! Shouldn't it be the reckless one to go and do something reckless like this?"

Himawari sighed and wrapped her arms around the crying girl, "Baka… I'm fighting to protect you, you know."

Sakurako looked up and Himawari smiled, "And when you get better, I know you'll do the same for me."

Miraisei scratched the back of her head, "Uh, well… there is one way you could fight now…"

Hatate's eyes widened, "Y-you don't possibly mean-"

"The Resistance has suffered injuries in the past, so it's inconvenient if we have to put things on hold to let bones heal," Miraisei held up a small device, "It's a special type of cast that allows you to move your limbs while keeping the bone still."

Sakurako's face lit up, "So I _can_ fight!"

"However," Hatate added, "It's not painless. In fact, it's way more painful than just trying to move your arm as it is now. We can't possibly force you to wear something like this. In fact, I heavily advise against it."

Sakurako looked down. She wanted to fight, she wanted to stand out there on the battlefield with her girlfriend, but she wasn't that strong-willed. She was also selfish and didn't like pain at all.

Himawari frowned, "Don't feel like you have to force yourself to wear them, just because I'm already fighting. In fact, I don't want you to wear them, okay?"

Sakurako nodded, "Yeah, that seems like it'd be a pain anyway. I'll just wait it out."

* * *

**Present**

Sakurako sighed as she leaned back against the pillow and closed her eyes. However, just then she heard the door slide open.

"A-ah, Katsu-san?" Sakurako asked. She had seen him around before, but mostly it was to flirt on Hatate (or really, any of the other nurses and nameless female associates of the Resistance. They all wore nametags, but Sakurako hadn't bothered learning any of their names.)

"Look," Katsu replied, "You probably think I'm a sleazy scumbag or an ass or whatever, but I can tell you're probably lonely or something."

He raised his arm and placed a chessboard on the small table near her bed.

"You know how to play?"

Sakurako shook her head, and Katsu sighed, "Geez, alright, I guess I'll teach you."

Thus ensued an incredibly long explanation on how to play chess. He didn't just stop at rules, he began talking strategy as well, with more passion and fervor than anything else she had seen him do. Sakurako would have normally stopped paying attention five minutes into the lesson, but seeing as she was stuck in a hospital bed and it was either play chess with the sleazy prick or sleep, she decided to listen to him, and he wound up actually catching her attention.

After he confirmed that she had grasped the rules, he began setting up the board.

"You know," he began, sighing as he systematically placed the pieces down one by one, "This kind of life doesn't suit me at all, to be honest."

Sakurako tilted her head, "What do you mean?"

"Heh, I'm about to have a heart-to-heart with a middle-schooler… ah well…" he finished the board setup and pointed the white side to Sakurako, "You may go first."

Sakurako nodded and moved one of her pawns.

"Anyway, I guess I'm just the kind of guy who doesn't really want to be involved in all of this," He replied, moving one of his knights, "I'm the guy who wanted to graduate, get a job, start a family with a nice girl, ya know, simple things. Not this dumbass fighting giant mechs straight out of an anime life where I'm treated like the lazy asshole because I don't like fighting."

Sakurako made another move, nodding silently, and Katsu continued once more, "The one girl I met in this crazy life, her name was Nakani. She was Haru's old partner…"

He trailed off, then scanned the board and decided to move his other knight, "The first time I flirted with her, I was expecting a groan or an eyeroll. I got something much worse."

Sakurako arched an eyebrow moving another pawn without paying attention much, "What?"

"A response. Here I was, the guy that flirted with everyone and never got more than a slap in the face for it, and here she was, actually flirting back. I had finally done it, I thought." Katsu placed his hands on a knight, but then shook his head at himself and instead moved one of the end pawns.

"What happened?" Sakurako asked, moving her bishop out.

"Everything was going great, that was about six years ago, mind you. Maybe more, but I don't remember all the details of the first three years…" He answered, moving a piece, "anyway, we started dating. We kept it a secret from the others, of course, and I still don't think anyone's caught on yet. Then a few months ago, I thought that there was probably just enough downtime between us in this crazy world that maybe I could go ahead and make her mine."

Sakurako didn't reply, instead, she just moved a piece silently.

"Then she goes and gets killed, just like that! To Armaldol, no less. Same bastard who attacked you two at the hospital. He might sound old, but he's a truly heartless bastard. He goes straight for the cockpit. He only cares about killing. She didn't even get to say any cool last words."

He moved again, and captured one of her pawns with his pawn.

"So now I'm stuck being her old partner's partner, flying her mech, the place where she died, and every damn time I wake up in the morning I see the goddamn engagement ring I bought for her."

Sakurako made another move silently.

"And what's worse, her old partner hates my guts. It's like I'm purposely made to suffer all the damn time! The only thing that's kept me sane in these past months is reverting back to my old personality. I'm flirting around with people and I hate it. But I can't do anything else. I can't face her death head on like that!"

He slammed his fist on the chessboard and toppled over a couple of the pieces. He apologized and picked them up, and placed them perfectly where they had been before moving.

"Sorry, I guess I kind of sound whiney," he replied as he watched Sakurako make her move.

"I don't think it's whiney," a voice from behind them replied.

"H-H-Hatate!?" They both exclaimed in surprise.

"I've been here this whole time, Katsu!" she smiled, giving him a knowing look, "I didn't know you were that romantically involved Nakani-san… Though I did have some suspicions that you two liked each other. You should've said something to us"

Katsu frowned, "It's behind me anyway, she's already dead. Saying something like that would be taken as a way to grab attention or something, especially now, three months after the fact."

Hatate sighed, "You don't have to bottle something like that up. It doesn't help."

Katsu frowned, picked up the chess board and the pieces, and left the room without another word.

"Hatate," Sakurako asked, "What kind of person is Katsu?"

Hatate sighed, "Sometimes I think I'm still trying to figure that out."

* * *

Yui wasn't entirely used to this.

Every day, after school, she'd go around purposely looking for Blacksabres sent to attack people who found out about the time loop and defeated them.

The thing, though, was she always wound up doing it alone. Her assigned partner, Chitose, was often busy with school or the student council, and Yui wasn't even sure if she was willing to go off doing something so reckless.

However, her recklessness could easily be considered profitable. She had awakened her Resolve, had obtained hours of fighting experience both in and out of a bladebot, and had eliminated several Time Agents, though none of them were explicitly Elites.

So when one of them had just collapsed without having been hit by any attacks, she wasn't sure how to approach the issue.

Taking the damn guy home was probably _not _her best call.

He was surprisingly human, all things considered. His short black hair was slightly unkempt and messy, and had she not known he was a Time Agent, she would've guessed he was human.

At least until he woke up and started yelling about killing her, in spite of his high fever and utter helplessness.

"Oi!" Yui yelled, "Calm down, you've got a fever!"

He spit the thermometer she'd placed under his tongue and scoffed, "What the hell is this!? I am your enemy!"

"No," Yui said forcefully, "Right now, you're my patient. Killing you while you were defenseless would've been cowardly, and you're too sick for a fair fight. I don't even know how you're planning on fighting at all."

"I am not just a stupid lacky! Afever's nothing to me! I am Elite General Lobos, and I won't be insulted!"

"I'm trying to help you, you stubborn bastard!" Yui yelled, punching him on the face, "Just because you Time Agents can't take sympathy on humans doesn't mean the we can't do that for you."

"You fool!" Lobos yelled, "I don't want your sympathy! I'll fight you right here and now!"

"Fine, fight me," she taunted him, eyes half-lidded. She walked over to the other side of the room and crossed her arms. He pathetically dragged himself to his feet and took two steps before collapsing again.

Yui smiled and dragged him back to the futon she'd laid out. She began tending to his fever. and he couldn't do much aside from look up at her and wonder why she was helping him.

Well, he could always ask.

"Why!?" Lobos asked, "Why are you helping me?"

Yui frowned, "I told you already…. It's because killing you while you were down wouldn't be actually defeating you. I don't seek the death of Time Agents, I merely seek their defeat. Besides, I believe there's more than one type of combat.

"W-what?" Lobos asked.

"By helping you, I'm reminding you of the humanity you once had," Yui replied, "All Time Agents were once human, correct? Even though you've cast that aside, I still know you probably think like humans too. Maybe it's me being foolish, but if I do something kind to an opponent I don't intend to fight anyway, that opponent might realize just how cruel they're acting towards us humans, who haven't provoked anything like that."

Lobos gritted his teeth, "You don't know anything about me. I could just as easily kill you in your sleep, dumbass."

Yui shook her head, "You won't. The first day I encountered you, you addressed Tetsuya like you had faced him in battle before. The way you said it made it sound like you sought him as a worthy opponent you wanted to defeat. You have more honor than that."

Lobos closed his eyes and frowned, but then the barest hints of a smile appeared, "Tell me, what is your name?"

Yui arched her eyebrow, "Hm? My name? Funami Yui."

Lobos smiled, "Ah, Funami Yui… you certainly are an interesting case. Even though you are the enemy, I'm glad to have met you today."

He closed his eyes and within moments his breathing had evened out. He had fallen asleep.

Yui sighed, "Geez, I don't even know what kind of crazy world this is anymore."

"_Still, the way he introduced himself… Elite General Lobos!? What's that supposed to mean? I've been getting this uneasy feeling over the past few days, like something major is going to happen..._

* * *

**AN: Hmm, All character development with no fighting whatsoever? BOORRRIIINNNGGGG!**

**Don't worry, we'll get to action later, and we've already had quite a bit of it. Here I'm trying to introduce more of the characters that'll be around a bit more in the future.**

**Speaking of which, Akane and Tomoko haven't been around since they were put off duty. Maybe I should do something about that soon.**


	12. Episode 12: Down Time Part 2

**_**Disclaimer: I do not own YuruYuri or any associated characters. The original characters that appear in this story are of my own creation.**_**

* * *

**Episode 12: Down Time Part 2**

Tomoko stared down at the alert she had left on her phone.

One week. She had given herself one week since their defeat and their sister's first battle to try to drag Akane up from the depths of depression, or at the very least, find out what was wrong.

Yet even with the self-imposed time limit, she still couldn't figure out what was wrong with Akane, let alone fix anything about it.

Then she had seen the redhead's room.

Granted, she had been in there before, but Akane always made it a point to clean up before Tomoko could even peek into her friend's bedroom, and one time when she had almost entered without Akane knowing, the girl came rushing past her and slammed the door closed before she could look inside.

The two were members of the resistance, though, so what could she possibly be hiding? That had been the essence of Tomoko's thoughts, but even then she'd never had a real reason to question her friend's motives.

When she saw what was inside, it had almost five days since the battle, so the stuff was scattered about and tossed around, as if Akane herself had threw a fit sometime during that span.

However, one thing was undeniable, the sheer amount of Akari-related items scattered about was ridiculous, and spoke very clearly what had been wrong with Akane.

She was _obsessed _with her sister, and that day, she had found out that Akari and Chinatsu were dating.

That was when Tomoko's goals shifted completely.

The notice on her phone, that she set on the day she saw Akane's bedroom, said two words.

"_Fess up."_

"Y-Yui! You're calling rather early!"

"Chitose, I normally try not to bother you on the weekends, but I need your help."

Sounds of yelling and plates braking in the background alerted Chitose to some sort of problem, though the extent or effects of which was uncertain.

"My, you sound like you have your hands full over there!" Chitose smiled, "I'll be over in a bit, wait for me!"

"O-okay, try to hurry!" Yui responded.

Chitose was, for better or for worse, alone today. Her twin sister, Chizuru, who rarely opens up to anyone, had recently made a friend, and she had opted to stay the night there. Chitose was not entirely used to the absence of her twin sister, but she had been growing slightly more distant.

Chitose clenched her fist. _"I'm sorry, Chizuru… I'm doing my best to protect you, but it's also putting a gap between us, huh? One day when this is over, maybe I'll be able to tell you the truth."_

* * *

Yui was not having fun.

"What's the big deal, breaking my plates! If you don't eat anything you'll get worse!" Yui yelled.

"I'm not accepting food from the enemy!" Lobos crossed his arms, "Yesterday I was weakened by fever and fatigue, and while I still have a higher temperature, I am more rested than I was. I will not show such abhorrent weakness!"

For a sick person to put up this much of a fight, Yui had to wonder just how dangerous Lobos was when he was healthy. Still, that wasn't the concern here.

"I have reinforcements coming soon. If you don't finish this dish before she gets here, we'll both force-feed you," Yui smiled.

"You little- ! Two against one is not a fair fight, even if you're both girls!" Lobos yelled.

Yui cracked her knuckles menacingly, and Lobos gulped. He really shouldn't have done that.

"Ah… shit, I was kidding! I'll eat, I'll eat!" Lobos pleaded. Yui smiled and placed a new plate of food in front of him, staring him down until he picked up the chopsticks and took a tentative bite.

The look on his face upon that initial taste was clear, he liked it. Still, she didn't expect him to admit that.

"It's not terrible, I'll give it that much," He replied, pretending not to like it as much as he really did. Still, his actions spoke louder than words, and in no time at all the plate was empty.

As Yui took his plate to the sink, she frowned, "You remind me of someone…"

Lobos's eyes widened, but he didn't respond at first. Yui didn't miss it, and her frown turned to a grin.

"You remind me of a kid me and my friends met way back when. He was kind of an asshole… actually. He tried to beat us up for being on his 'territory', even though it was just a playground."

Lobos merely replied, "A-ah… yeah, he doesn't sound so nice…"

Yui smiled even further, "Still, I don't believe he was a bad person. Kids can be misguided at times, I think. They do what they want and they don't realize the consequences of their actions… that's what I thought of him, at least."

Lobos frowned, "What a… compassionate way of looking at things… Funami Yui…"

"Its such a shame that such a person would cast away their humanity for promises of power… right… Lobos?" Yui replied, looking at him.

Lobos's eyes widened once more, "So… you realized it… you recognized me… I'm surprised."

"You asked me yesterday why I helped you?" Yui began, "It's because I wanted to set us apart, Lobos. You, who fights for yourself, and I, who fights for others. Even from the beginning, it was like that, wasn't it? I thought that maybe you'd change after that, but I was naive then, too. I put faith in a stranger I didn't know, and that faith was clearly misplaced."

"Funami Yui…" Lobos replied, "Know this… I am not the same person as I was back then. However, to say I cast off my humanity for power? You're wrong. I joined the Time Agents for one reason… to meet with that person, and defeat him! I was offered power, strength, and immortality, but I rejected all of these. The person you see before you is still completely human!"

Yui's eyes widened, "T-that person? You mean… Tetsuya!?"

Lobos nodded, "Ozu Tetsuya… he is the one person in this world I truly loathe. To fight him again… one on one, outside of these stupid robots… and defeat him entirely… that is my only desire."

Yui was about to ask what happened between him and Tetsuya, but then the doorbell rang, and Chitose's friendly voice, "Hello, Funami-san! I'm here!"

Lobos smiled, then headed for the window, "Funami Yui… you'd be wise not to reveal your actions to anyone else… you might be considered a traitor. Thank you for your kindness, but I am fully capable of taking care of myself from here on out. The next time you and eye meet, it will be on the battlefield… as enemies."

Lobos then jumped from the window, but at the last second he brought out his Blackdagger and used it to flee quickly. Yui sighed and opened the door for Chitose.

"Funami-san, what did you need my help with?" Chitose asked.

"Ah, nevermind that…" Yui replied, "Anyway, I was wondering if we could talk…"

* * *

Tomoko stood outside of Akane's crew quarters and sighed. She knew Akane was in there, but every time she raised her hand to knock on the door, she got nervous. Even now, as she raised her hand to the door for the seventh time, she was starting to have second thoughts about this.

"_No! I must do this! It's been a week! Akane… Akane… I… I have to reach you with this!"_

The second she knocked on the door, she knew there was no turning back.

Akane opened the door slowly, and upon seeing it was Tomoko, she swung open the door.

"A-ah, Tomoko?" Akane asked, her voice sounding somewhat empty, "What is it?"

"I-I…" Tomoko began, "I…."

Tomoko had rehearsed her lines multiple times, she had thought of many plans and possible responses, and even as she ran them all through her head one final time, she knew it would be useless.

Instead, she took a more direct approach.

As Tomoko threw her arms around Akane and pressed her lips to her friend's, she could only think one thing.

"_Please, please let my feelings reach her!"_

As Tomoko broke the kiss, Akane just stared at her blankly.

"Are you… mocking me?" Akane asked.

Tomoko's eyes widened, "Akane… of course not… I… I love you… alright…"

"Why?" Akane asked, empty-eyed, "Why are you lying to me? Why must the world torment me like this!?"

Tomoko's eyes widened. Akane's voice was sporadic, and her eyes were shifty. She had been driven to the brink of despair, so much so that now she couldn't even see Tomoko's own feelings. She truly was obsessed with Akari.

Tomoko grabbed Akane and held her tighter, "Akane… I saw your room…"

Akane's eyes widened and her breath got caught in her throat.

"That's why, one week ago, your Emotion Drive…" Tomoko began.

"Shut up…." Akane commanded, "Shut up…. That… that wasn't what it-"

"You love Akari," Tomoko began, "No… more like, you're obsessed with Akari."

Akane grasped at her head, tears starting to pool next to her eyes, "I've lost everything! My love, my relationship with my beloved Akari… and now… my image… I… I…"

"No," Tomoko replied, "You haven't lost everything… I haven't told anyone about your room, your sister's just uncomfortable right now, everything will be fine…"

"How can you say that!" Akane yelled, "I can't go on like this…"

Tomoko's eyes darkened, "I won't let you do anything rash! Akane… I love you! I love you! Please listen to me when I say that! Maybe you don't feel the same way, but I don't want to lose you forever!"

Tomoko was on the verge of tears at this point, but she didn't care. She wanted the old Akane back. The Akane that was sweet and kind and didn't spend days locked up in her room with glazed eyes staring up at the ceiling.

"Don't cry, Tomoko," Akane replied, finally snapping out of the mood she'd been in all week, "Please, one of us being sad is enough, right? So I'm going to say this… I can't say I love you now, but… I'm going to try to get over Akari, alright? Once I do, maybe I'll be able to say I love you and mean it."

Tomoko wiped her tears away. It wasn't a yes, and it wasn't how she wanted her confession to go, but Tomoko felt greatly satisfied with how things turned out.

* * *

Tetsuya was lying up on the roof, enjoying a nice, peaceful evening with a full moon looking down on him.

It was rare, these moments of peace. The Time Agents had been attacking relentlessly since they rescued the middle-schoolers, and the two days since they stopped attacking the Resistance members head on had been unusually quiet for the raven-haired man.

Still, it unsettled him. Why had they stopped their assault so easily? What could they possibly be planning to make them wait two whole days before attacking. Tetsuya wasn't sure who even sent the Time Agents out to begin with, but earlier in their war, when the Blacksabres left remains behind instead of dissolving, they had scanned quite a few instances of the word "Chronolith" in the files of their machines. As they were unsure as to what Chronolith meant exactly, they hesitated to call Chonolith the Time Agent's leader, but it was definitely a heavy possibility.

If so, what was this "Cronolith's" plans? No matter how hard he wracked his brain with this, he still couldn't answer that question for himself, and he was so concentrated on the issue at hand that he hadn't heard Haru sneak up on him.

"Hey, Tetsuya!" Haru smiled, placing a hand on the poor man's shoulder.

He jumped at the contact and looked up at her, frowning, "Ah! Haru! Warn me when you show up next time."

Haru let out a quiet laugh, "But that wouldn't be as fun!"

Tetsuya sighed, "Hey, Haru?"

Haru looked down at her friend, "Hmm?"

"It would be best if you didn't approach Nana about your feelings right now," Tetsuya replied.

Haru's eyes widened, "Hmm, why?"

"Because," Tetsuya began, "I feel it… something big is coming. We don't need you being depressed about Nana in the upcoming fight if she winds up saying no."

Haru frowned, "Tetsuya… I'm going to confess tomorrow."

"Haru…" Tetsuya began, but Haru cut her off.

"I need to know, Tetsuya… I need to know how she feels about me!"

"Haru, I don't think that's a good-" Tetsuya began.

"sorry, Tetsuya… I normally take your advice, but tomorrow I'm definitely confessing my feelings to Nana!"

* * *

**AN: So, more character development stuff.**

**Next chapter will be something a bit more exciting.**


	13. Episode 13: Declaration of War!

****_**Disclaimer: I do not own YuruYuri or any associated characters. The original characters that appear in this story are of my own creation.**_****

* * *

**Episode 13: Declaration of War! Until Noon to Prepare!**

Nana and Rise managed to take down another Elite Time Agent. As they watched the Blacksabre dissolve into dust, Nana smiled.

"Is it just me, or are they getting easier?"

As much as Rise wanted to allow Nana her childish moment of mocking their enemies, she felt it was a much more uplifting feeling if they thought about it a different way, "I think we're just getting stronger."

Nana smiled, "Of course we are, now come on, we've still got a few hours before you need to be home, let's do something fun."

* * *

Rise and Nana sat together on Nana's couch. They were cuddled up next to each other, and a rather dull movie that neither of them was really paying attention to was playing. They had just eaten dinner, which was pretty much standard fare with these sorts of things.

Oh how Nana longed to go out and do something different for a change. She never got a chance to be romantic with anyone in the past, mainly because she had been too devoted to her education to care, but all those missed chances to go to the beach or out to a restaurant or really anything at all were starting to sound really nice now that she had someone.

Rise, Nana realized, probably felt the same way. Still, she wasn't sure if they could ever bring their relationship to light. Even when Rise grew older, Nana's friends would realize that the two had probably been together longer than that, and while Nana didn't want to believe her friends would be against it, there was one person she was worried about.

Takasu Haru.

Afte all, if the white-haired girl really did have feelings for her, and she found out about them dating, she might try to split them up.

So no matter what, Haru could absolutely not find out about their relationship.

* * *

Tetsuya sighed as he entered the food court.

He had been looking for Haru all day, to no avail, and he had a really bad feeling in his gut. It had intensified overnight, and now he was almost positive something would happen today.

Even so, he didn't leave the base.

He had a good idea where Haru was going, but he had told himself he would at least stay out of her business that much. If she insisted on asking Nana, it would be pointless to try to stop her anyway.

Her personality would indicate otherwise, but Haru could be immovably stubborn at times.

Besides, if he used his authority in the Resistance to force her to return to the base without asking, she would lose respect for him. And even though her timing was poor, Tetsuya had to admit that she admired her for having the courage to confess to the girl she liked.

After all, Tetsuya himself, for various reasons, couldn't do the same. Not under these circumstances anyway.

As he sat down, nothing more than a mug of coffee and a small plate of the best food they had (which even then, wasn't saying much), he noticed his sister, who called her over to a table and smiled.

"Hey, Tetsuya," she began, shoving something that may or may not have been fried into her mouth, "It's been a while since it was just the two of us eating together, huh?"

Tetsuya nodded, "Yeah, normally Haru and Hatate are around, or at the very least Katsu…"

"Hatate's been running errands and the like," Miraisei explained, "buying medical supplies and other things she needs."

"Haru's been..." Tetsuya began, "Doing her own thing…"

Miraisei smiled, "Ohhh, she's keeping secrets from you?"

"It's not unusual," Tetsuya replied, "Besides, I _know _what she's doing, it's just decidedly not Resistance related."

"Ah," Miraisei nodded, "Soooo…. are you two going out yet?"

Tetsuya rolled his eyes, "I don't know why you insist we like each other. She's just a really close friend to me, that's all. I'm not sure what she feels about me, but I know she likes someone else."

Miraisei frowned, "Ohhh, Who? Tell me tell me tell me-"

"Sis," Tetsuya replied, placing his hand over her mouth, "It's not important. It's not my secret to share, and I don't need to tell you unless it becomes more relevant."

"What do you mean by 'more relevant'?" Miraisei questioned, pouting.

"I mean if they start going out," Tetsuya replied without thinking.

"Aha!" Miraisei smiled, "So that's what she's up to."

Before Tetsuya could worry about how his sister had just tricked him into telling her what she wanted to know, a few engineers ran in, panicking.

"We're picking up an anomaly in the time-field!"

Miraisei and Tetsuya both stood up, alarmed.

"What's going on!?"

* * *

Nana and Rise were pressed together on Nana's couch, movie forgotten and tongues enraveled. To be fair to Nana, it hadn't been her who initiated the make-out session.

That wasn't to say it wasn't welcomed.

At any rate, the two were very much preoccupied when two things happened at once.

The first was a knock on the door. Much to their surprise. Nana didn't normally have many visitors and there were less than a handful of people who knew where she lived. When she got up and looked through the peephole to see who it was, her heart skipped a beat. It was Haru.

However, before she could even open the doors, the second thing happened.

"_Attention all members of the Resistance! This is Ozu Miraisei. We have reason to believe the Time Agents are planning something. Please report to the base immediately. Individual Retrieval Rockets will be flown to the nearest rendezvous point to your location." _

Nana whirled around and saw Rise, who was already getting up and fixing her messed up hair and clothes. Nana did the same and grabbed her iconic labcoat. Pulling it on gracefully, she opened the door.

Haru's eyes widened, and she smiled.

"N-Nana! Oh, Rise's here with you? I came here to tell you something, but I guess this issue's more important. Come on, let's head to rendezvous 4-K, that's the closest."

Nana nodded and the three ran down the stares of the apartment complex and into the nearby forest. Near the middle of the wooded area, they found three rockets waiting to take them to base.

* * *

Everyone had arrived, and had moved themselves to the center of Kyoto. They were all equipped with weapons and their X-Bracelets, but they had opted to keep their Bladebots at the base until they needed them. No need to freak out people if it could be avoided.

"Why are we here, exactly?" Akari had asked.

"This is the area where the anomaly is the strongest," Hatate explained.

"What do you think they have planned?" Kyouko asked.

Miraisei shrugged, "It could be anything, really. We don't know yet."

Suddenly, time stopped for everything except for the members of the resistance, and a large army of Blacksabres, unlike any attack the Resistance had ever seen, appeared in the sky. A giant Blacksabre in the shape of an Armadillo floated in the sky behind all of them, and it was from this one that the old, rusty voice of Armaldol spoke up.

"ATTENTION, MEMBERS OF THE RESISTANCE! THE ARMY YOU SEE BEFORE YOU IS BUT A FRACTION OF OUR POWER! IT IS MY FLEET, MY UNIT OF ELITE TIME AGENTS! I, ELITE GENERAL ARMALDOL, COMMAND ALL THE UNITS YOU SEE HERE! TOMORROW, I WILL LAY SIEGE TO THE LIKELY LOCATION OF YOUR BASE, KYOTO!"

"Well, they're a little off, but they're damn close!" Miraisei replied.

"YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN A NIGHT TO PREPARE YOURSELVES! WE WILL NOT ATTACK AT ALL IN THIS TIME! THE BATTLE BEGINS ONCE THE SUN IS AT ITS PEAK! YOU HAVE UNTIL NOON TOMORROW TO COME TO TERMS WITH YOUR FATE!"

Suddenly, all the Blacksabres disappeared and time began flowing once more.

The members of the Resistance having witnessed the announcement stared at the sky and each other in total shock. Even Miraisei looked a bit intimidated at the size of their army.

"One night…" Akari began.

"To prepare for that…" Chinatsu finished.

Miraisei shook off her shock and got the largest grin on her face, "Alright! Those bastards really want a fight? We'll give 'em one they'll never forget! We'll kick their asses so hard they'll be sore for months! Who's with me, da ze!"

Kyouko smiled, "Hell yeah I am!"

Ayano grinned, "Where she goes, I go."

"The Ozu family sticks together, right sis?" Tetsuya replied, smirking.

Yui let the hints of a smile form on her face, "I guess it sounds like fun."

Hatate looked at Miraisei and grinned, "Someone needs to patch you guys up, right?"

Chitose smiled politely, "I'm don't want to be left out of this."

"Of course I'm with you guys." Haru replied.

"Rise and I are in too," Nana answered.

"Geez, you guys, I can't be the only one that says no!" Katsu replied, yet he had a grin on his face, "I'm in!"

And so, the preparation for the fight for Kyoto began.

* * *

After some last minute Bladebot and Resolve training, each member of the resistance returned to the crew quarters. They had all come up with different excuses for their homes, and were now resting comfortably in the same place.

With all these extra people around, Haru wondered why the one person she couldn't seem to find was Nana.

"_Actually, come to think of it, Rise is too…" _Haru thought, _"In fact, those two seem to be together a lot. They seem pretty close for a teacher and student. I kind of want to know what their relationship is."_

Rise smiled to herself, thinking something like _"I'll just ask on one of our dates, if she says yes…"_

That's when she found them.

The door to Nana's room had been slightly ajar, and when she leaned in to close it, she noticed something that nearly brought her to tears.

Nana and Rise were leaning against the bed, arms intertwined and lips pressed together.

"_No…"_

Rise parted first, and smiled, giving Nana a comforting look. Maybe it was due to jealousy, or maybe just her naturally good hearing, but Rise smiled and said, "I love you… Nana."

"_No… No!"_

Nana smile and patted the student's head, and Haru silently watched as her knees became weak. She nearly broke down right there when Nana replied, "I love you too, Rise…"

As Haru walked off, she frowned and closed her eyes holding back tears.

"_It's none of my business, who Nana loves! It's none of my business! I… I can't believe this!"_

* * *

**AN: Damnit, Haru! Why didn't you listen to Tetsuya! **

**Anyway, things are going to be heating up again, so get ready! The next chapters will focus solely on this battle, because it's gonna be a long one.**


	14. Episode 14: Before the Battle

_**Disclaimer: I do not own YuruYuri or any of the associated characters. Any original characters that appear in this story are of my own creation.**_

* * *

**Episode 14: Before the Battle**

**Kyodai Campus, Years Earlier**

Tetsuya, a senior in college and months from graduating, walked down the streets of Kyoto. He has shorter hair, not yet tied back in a ponytail, and he wore a black trenchcoat in place of his labcoat. As he pushed past the bustling crowds, he accidentally bumped into a strange man dressed in monk's robes.

"A-ah, sorry," he replied, turning to move around the man. However, the monk grabbed his arm.

"Hold it boy… Ozu Tetsuya. You have… an interesting fate," the man spoke, "Knowledge of the future is powerful. If you wish to know what lies in your path ahead, follow me. If not, then turn now, and forget you ever met me."

Tetsuya was slightly unnerved that the man knew his name, but he was skeptical of this "knowledge of the future". He was, after all, a scientist, and superstition was just that, a silly belief fueled by nothing and backed by no evidence.

Yet as he turned to leave, he looked back at the monk, who had turned his back and was not looking at him.

Tetsuya let out a long sigh and turned around. He would hear what this strange man had to say.

The monk led him to a strange shrine in the area. He had never heard of its existence, and there wasn't even a path leading towards it. They had to weave their way around trees and hike up a small mountain to get there, and when they arrived, the sight wasn't that glamorous. The shrine was old and run down, and there wasn't even a toori.

As they walked into the shrine, the man took a seat. There were already two hot cups of tea waiting for them, and as far as Tetsuya knew, there was no one else at the shrine to drink the second cup.

"_This guy… did he know I was coming?"_

"Ozu Tetsuya…" the monk spoke, "I have here a set of tarot cards here… they are not traditional, however. On each one is inscribed a name that only my guests may read. I do not see their names, only their faces. Choose two… and I will tell you their fates."

"Fate… in other words…" Tetsuya asked.

"I will tell you how they die." the monk replied, "There is nothing you can do to change them, this is only so you know when they will part."

The man laid out the tarot cards, and just as the man had said, instead of displaying their proper names, the cards displayed the names and faces of his friends.

His hand hovered over his own card, but stopped when the monk frowned.

"I will tell you this now… I cannot see your fate. It's why I was interested in you. However, I will tell you this. Your name appeared in the card that is normally titled "The Star"… it represents hope. This in of itself has meaning. You are that, a beacon of hope for your friends and family."

Instead, he picked the card of his sister, Ozu Miraisei, and the card of his close friend, Takase Haru.

"Hmm…" the monk placed his hand on Miraisei's card, "The girl with the raven hair, your relative? She is 'The Magician', which represents Will. She has an undying desire and conviction, and once she has her mind set on something, nothing short of death can stop her. Like you, I cannot see her fate… but I will tell you this… she will not fall, even after she dies."

Tetsuya didn't bother asking the monk what he meant by this. Prophecies are always supposed to be vague, after all.

"The other card, the white-haired girl…" the monk began, "She is 'The Sun'. She represents Happiness… though not even I can tell you what this means. Sometimes it's from a general point of view. She may bring happiness to all of those around her, or sometimes it's from the point of view of the guest… she may bring feelings of happiness specifically to you. I am not sure which one she is, but know this… her fate is clear. When one thousand metal beasts fall from the sky, her soul will not power her survival, and she will die."

Tetsuya's eyes widened. That sounded absolutely ridiculous! one thousand metal beasts? There was no such thing, right?

* * *

**Present, Morning Before the Battle**

Tetsuya woke up in a cold sweat. That dream… that memory. At the time, he had brushed it off as ridiculous. He figured the monk was screwing with him. After all, a thousand metal beasts falling from the sky sounded like something impossible.

By the time Tetsuya and the others found out about the Time Agents and formed the Resistance, he had all but forgotten of the monk's words, but this upcoming battle gave them new meaning.

"_Haru… is she really going to die!?" _

He ran his hand through his hair and sighed. Worrying about such things now would be pointless.

As he brought himself to his feet, he looked over at a picture. It was a photo of him and all his college friends. His sister had her arms slung around both his and Hatate's necks, Haru was smiling politely next to him, Nana was standing next to Haru and Katsu and Nanaki were standing on the other side.

They had already lost Nakani, and other members of the science club that they had met after graduation. This life was not carefree, and this wasn't an anime where the main characters never die no matter what.

"Haru…" he spoke, almost subconsciously, as he gazed at his childhood friend. Aside from his older sister, Tetsuya had known Haru longer than anyone else there.

"_I don't want to lose her." _he decided, _"No matter what, today, Haru will not die."_

* * *

Miraisei was standing on the roof of the Science Department's building. The nice part about having the Science Club be the front of the undercover Resistance meant that it their base didn't even need to be completely hidden. And while a majority of the above-ground portion was mostly just laboratories and other, more normal science facilities, it meant that there was always a roof to stand on while being pensive.

And Miraisei was being very pensive right now.

"_The battle… any of us could wind up dead… I don't want to think like that… but pretending it can't happen would just be lying to myself…"_

Images of Hatate flashed in her mind, and she smiled.

"_Well, if I don't do it now, I might not get another chance…"_

As she turned around, however, she saw the aforementioned nurse standing behind her.

"Ah, Miraisei, so this is where you were…" Hatate replied, a faint blush on her cheeks.

Miraisei smiled, "You were lookin' for me, da ze?"

Hatate nodded, "Look, this battle's going to be dangerous… I just wanted to talk to you…"

Miraisei laughed, "Funny, I was thinking the same thing."

Hatate blushed, "Y-you were?"

"Yeah," Miraisei leaned against the railing lining the sides of the building, "I'm gonna be nice and let you go first, though."

Hatate looked down and let out a long breath, "Miraisei… I…"

Miraisei smiled and cut her off when she pressed her lips to hers. Hatate blushed, but then quickly melted into the kiss and wrapped her arms around her leader.

Miraisei broke, "Sorry, I lied, I wasn't nice at all. I was selfish and wound up interrupting you."

Hatate lightly slapped Miraisei in the head in mock anger, then added, "It's okay, I don't think I need to say anything anymore…"

Miraisei grinned, "When we get back, I'll take you out to a nice dinner or something. How does that sound?"

"It sounds wonderful," Hatate replied, "If you don't, I'll never forgive you… so… so don't die, alright?"

Miraisei nodded, "Of course I won't die! I've got a date riding on our victory!"

And with that, the two made their way down from the roof to prepare for the final battle.

* * *

Haru hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the night before.

Hell, she had barely gotten any. Her eyes were still slightly red from crying, and there were slight bags under her eyes from her exhaustion.

Still, she pulled herself to her feet.

"_I won't be able to fight well like this… but those endless enemies… if I don't to anything, I'd feel even worse… I'd be a burden."_

As she left her room, she saw Tetsuya sitting on the couch in the main room of the crew quarters. He was drinking a cup of coffee and he looked focused on something in his mind. He was thinking.

As she entered his field of vision, he turned to look to her, "Ah, Haru… hm?"

She jumped a bit, he had noticed her mood immediately. He had been her friend for nearly as long as she could remember. Of course he'd be able to read her, especially with her emotions so obviously different.

"You look… sad… what happened?" Tetsuya asked.

"A-ah! No, no! It's nothing, really," Haru replied, forcing a smile and rubbing her eyes, "I'm just still tired from having just woken up!"

"You slept in," Tetsuya replied, "It's 11:30."

"A-ah! Why didn't you tell me! I have to get ready for the battle!" Haru replied, panicking.

"Haru… Normally I wouldn't do this… but I don't want you fighting today." Tetsuya stated, his face unreadable.

"W-wha… Tetsuya… why?" Haru replied.

"Something's clearly bothering you," Tetsuya answered, "Last night, I went by your room to tell you something, and I heard you crying. Something happened between you and Nana. I don't know what yet… but we've seen what kind of danger fighting in that kind of emotional state can put you in."

"Tetsuya," Haru replied, "I'm fine now, really! Something _did _happen with Nana, but it's not important now. I've decided that it's my fault for not asking her sooner… no… maybe we were just never going to be together, regardless. Either way, I'm not letting it bother me too much."

It was, of course, a lie, Haru still felt heartbroken over everything, but she didn't want to miss out on the opportunity to fight.

Tetsuya shook his head, "I've already told the engineers in the hangar. You will not be allowed to participate in this battle, Haru. You and Katsu have been assigned to stay here at the base and provide us with information."

Haru frowned, "Tetsuya… I… why?"

Tetsuya raised an eyebrow, "Hm?"

"Why can't I fight!? What's the real reason! If you think I might not be able to pilot a Bladebot, you could just test me on an Emotion Drive to see how much energy I put out! I don't want to sit here uselessly while you go out there and risk your life!"

Tetsuya frowned, "I just don't want to lose one of my close friends, alright. Trust me, I have a reason for it."

Haru, in an uncharacteristic fit of rage, slapped Tetsuya.

"If there's a reason, you should be able to tell me… maybe you don't consider me your friend anymore… maybe I'm just another person working for your sister."

Tetsuya frowned as Haru walked away without another word.

"_I'm trying to protect you, Haru… "_

* * *

Everyone stood at the center of Kyoto, Bladebots ready and weapons in hands. They all had their X-Bracelets ready, and Miraisei was standing with her arms crossed at the top of her Bladebot.

As the sun rose to it's highest point on the sky, the world around them came to a standstill. Everyone was frozen in place, once again with the exception being the members of the Resistance.

Suddenly, all the Blacksabres from yesterday appeared in the sky once more, and the large General Blacksabre appeared in front of the sun, a creating an ominous eclipse before moving away.

"I AM ELITE GENERAL ARMALDOL! THERE ARE A THOUSAND DIFFERENT BLACKSABRES YOU MUST FIGHT HERE, AND THERE ARE ONLY 14 OF YOU. YOU HAVE NO CHANCE OF SURVIVAL. SURRENDER YOURSELVES NOW, OR FACE THE MIGHT OF AN ARMY OF TIME AGENTS!"

"There's no way in hell we'll surrender!" Miraisei yelled, "I'm Ozu Miraisei, Kickass Leader of the Resistance! We're gonna take you down! All one thousand of you!"

"SO BE IT!" Armaldol scoffed, "TIME AGENTS! KILL THEM!"

* * *

**AN: So, no battle yet, but the Time Agents have begun their attack. Also, as it turns out, Haru's fated to die in the upcoming battle, yet Tetsuya prevented her from fighting. What does this mean?**

**It obviously means that the fortune teller was wrong. Because things are always that simple and straightforward.**

**(Or maybe I'm lying.)**

**Anyway, since I'm the one writing the story, the only one who knows what's going to happen is me. Predictions are still fun to read, though. (They also give me ideas, since I'm writing this story on a day to day basis. I have a basic outline for where the story goes, but I haven't worked out all the details.)**

**As to whether Haru's going to actually die or not has yet to be seen.**


	15. Episode 15: The Fight for Kyoto!

**_**Disclaimer: I do not own YuruYuri or any associated characters. The original characters that appear in this story are of my own creation.**_**

* * *

**Episode 15: The Fight for Kyoto! The 1000-Strong Army!**

"Kyouko!" Ayano shouted, whirling around to kick the Blacksabre that was coming up behind her girlfriend's Bladebot.

"Thanks, Ayano!" Kyouko replied as she punched a Blacksabre in front of her.

"These guys are pretty weak for Blacksabres!" Yui pointed out, blasting through two of them with her Type-A Dark Raven's energy rifle.

Miraisei rammed her Bladebot's foot into a Blacksabres face before adding, "They're probably weaker since they had to produce so many of them. Armaldol's army is weak individually. The problem is the sheer number of them."

Nearby, Tetsuya was mowing down a few Blacksabres himself. He stabbed through a few with his Bladebot's katana, then rammed it into the ground and used it as a pole vault to propel himself upwards so he could gain a higher ground and take out a few more Blacksabres with precise slashes.

Behind him, Hatate and Himawari were fighting off a group of eight Blacksabres. They were weaving around a bunch of buildings and trying to fight them off. Himawari was shooting at them and using the Sunrazor's knee blades to attack. Before she knew it, however, Himawari was surrounded.

"Now, Himawari!" Hatate yelled.

"WHATEVER YOU'RE PLANNING, IT AIN'T GONNA WORK, LADY!" one of the Time Agents taunted, "WE'VE GOT YOU SURROUNDED!"

"Sorry," Himawari laughed, "but you've already lost."

Himawari jumped up and a web of gauze was pulled tight around the eight Blacksabres, immobilizing them. Hatate smiled, then she and Himawari took them out with their energy rifles.

Chitose was positioned on top of a taller tower with her Type-L Moonphaser, picking Blacksabres off with a sniper. She wasn't as good with actual combat, but she was an excellent support.

Akari and Chinatsu were fighting alongside Akane and Tomoko for the first time. Akari's new Bladebot, to differentiate it with her sister's old Bladebot, was named Crimson Blade, and Chinatsu's new Bladebot was named Fuschia Lance.

Their sisters' Bladebots, having gotten fresh coats of paint, had clearly visible names now. They were Scarlet Sword and Magenta Devil respectively.

Akari and Chinatsu were taking turns shooting and kicking enemies, with Akari firing off an occasional Akarin Cannon to wipe out numerous enemies at once. Akane was using a new arm blade that was installed onto her Bladebot to slice through her enemies, and Tomoko was using concentrated energy rifle fire to make quick, clean work of the Blacksabres swarming the city.

"Akari! Behind you!" Chinatsu called.

"I see it!" Akari yelled, whirling around to attack a new slew of enemies. She let off a short burst of gatling fire, but before she could get all of them, her bladebot's shoulder guard was clawed clean off.

Akane quickly came and impaled the offending Blacksabre, but they were noticing a trend. No matter how many they took out, more came in their place.

Miraisei was right, their true strength was the sheer number of them. Their relenting attacks wouldn't let up, and eventually, the team would be worn down.

* * *

The battle had been raging on for a while, but by the looks of it, the Resistance had only managed to take out a fourth of the enemies swarming Kyoto. Everyone was getting tired out, and it didn't look like the enemies would let up anytime soon.

Miraisei was fighting her absolute hardest, she was taking enemies out left and right, but even then, she was only putting a dent in their numbers.

Akari and Chinatsu, as well as Akane and Tomoko, were at their limit. They were exhausted, and even though their Bladebot's power wouldn't run dry as long as the Emotion Drive was working, their physical bodies couldn't keep up with their machines.

Tetsuya was making sloppier movements than normal, Hatate's endless traps and tricks were becoming more and more obvious, even to the enemies. Himawari wasn't doing too well combat-wise. Yui, despite having trained her stamina up, was having a hard time putting out the same damage as she had at the beginning of the battle. The endless onslaught was starting to take it's toll on even Chitose, who had run out of shots and was forced to come down to fight herself.

Very slowly, the battle was being lost.

"Hey?" Ayano replied after a while, "Has anyone seen Rise or Nana?"

Kyouko looked around, "Y-you're right! Their Bladebots aren't here!"

Miraisei smiled, "Oh, they haven't run off! Hey, you guys ready yet?"

Nana replied, "Just finished setting it up! Should we use it now?"

"We're kind of in a pinch, so fire away, da ze!" Miraisei smiled.

Suddenly, a nearby old-fashioned Japanese tower began splitting in half, revealing not one, but three giant energy cannons, layered on top of each other. They were set up in the center of the city, and they could aim nearly anywhere.

Nana smiled, sitting at the controls and looking at three targeting monitors. She picked the most Blacksabre-dense area and fired all three cannons at them, destroying a good chunk.

"WHAT!?" Armaldol exclaimed, "I-IMPOSSIBLE! SOMETHING LIKE THAT!"

Miraisei smiled, "We set it up last night. Quick, aren't we? If you had known this town better, you would've noticed there wasn't supposed to be a building there!"

"DON'T SCREW WITH ME!" Armaldol yelled, "WE'RE NOT FINISHED YET! ALL UNITS, ATTACK THE CANNON!"

As the Blacksabres swarmed the cannons, the Bladebots came to intercept them, and the cannon continued firing at the army of Time Agents.

"Don't think for a second we're gonna let you do that, da ze!" Miraisei yelled, destroying three Blacksabres with one strong kick.

"Yeah!" Tetsuya yelled, "With the cannon, we can cut down their numbers much faster!"

"There's still a damn lot of them!" Hatate pointed out.

"Even with the cannon, it's only a matter of time before their sheer numbers get the better of us!" Yui pointed out.

Still, the cannon fired away, destroying quite a few Blacksabres every time. The Resistance fought their hardest to keep the Blacksabres away from their trump card, but even then, it was getting hard to fight them off.

Suddenly, a Blacksabre got past their defenses and charged suicidally at one of the three cannons. It flew into it's center and destroyed it, blowing up in the process.

"Damn!" Miraisei shouted.

Another one got through, and despite their best efforts, they couldn't stop it before it reached the cannon. It was about to destroy another one of the cannons, but it was suddenly stopped by a familiar light blue Bladebot. The name on the side read Cresent Blue, and while the newer members wouldn't recognize it by it's name, the older members knew who it was immediately.

And the sight of it make Tetsuya terrified.

"H-HARU!"

"I'm sorry, Tetsuya!" Haru replied, "but I wasn't about to sit around doing nothing! I can pilot a Bladebot, so I can fight!"

As Haru said this, she punched the offending Blacksabre and threw it into another, causing them both to explode.

Miraisei smiled, "Alright! We need extra help anyway!"

"_Damn… this can't be happening!" _Tetsuya yelled,_ "She's here… she's really here! She'll die…"_

He watched her fight and immediately noticed something was wrong, she wasn't moving nearly as fast and her punches weren't doing as much damage.

The monk's words echoed in his head, _I will tell you their fate… I will tell you how they die… there is nothing you can do to change them."_

As enemies surrounded her, she was having more and more trouble fighting them off. There were too many of them.

"_When a thousand metal beasts fall from the sky…"_

He quickly pulled up her Bladebot's monitoring screen, and looked at the numbers in horror. Her Emotion Drive was barely producing any power.

"_Her soul will not power her survival…"_

She was surrounded, and even though she kept fighting, there was no way she'd be able to fight them all off fast enough in that state.

"_...and she will die."_

A Blacksabre with sharp claws shot at her from the ground and was ready to impale her cockpit. A strike like that would undoubtedly be fatal.

"_There is nothing you can do to change them."_

"TO HELL WITH THAT!" Tetsuya charged forwards, his Bladebot moving faster than it had ever before. He quickly impaled the attacking Blacksabre with his Katana, then cut open a path for Haru to escape through.

After that, he swiftly cut the other Blacksabres, destroying all of them in one swift motion.

"_I…. I will change Haru's fate! Here and now, I will change Haru's fate!"_

His Bladebot's sword burst forth with energy, and he started barreling through enemies faster than before.

"Wow, bro, didn't know ya had it in ya, da ze!" Miraisei smiled.

After he took out another Blacksabre, he looked up towards the general's Blacksabre.

"Sis! It's moving!" Tetsuya yelled.

The members of the Resistance not preoccupied with fighting off Time Agents all looked up at the General's large Blacksabre. It was charging directly for the cannon. The resistance began firing and attacking him, but it seemed to do them no good.

"YOU FOOLS! I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO STAND UP AGAINST US!"

Armaldol's Blacksabre raised a clawed hand and sliced the remaining cannons in half. Once he was done, the giant Blacksabre lept into the air and landed farther back than he was before. The remaining Blacksabres stood in the way of the Resistance and them, and now without the cannon, there was nothing to go back on.

"Looks like we'll need to combine, eh, Tomoko?" Akane asked.

"Hey," Akari replied, "Good idea!"

Kyouko smiled, "Let's do it right this time, Ayano!"

"Chitose, we haven't combined before, think you can handle it?" Yui asked

Chitose nodded, "Yeah, I'll be fine!"

Hatate nodded, "We've been waiting to use it as a last resort, but it doesn't look like we have much of a choice.

Nana and Rise, who had left the cannon just in the nick of time, also had their Bladebots.

"We're not quite as worn down, we'll hold off for now." Nana replied.

"Same here!" Miraisei replied, "I wanna save our combination for the General!"

The eight willing Resistance members all transformed their Bladebots, and as they docked, they all simultaneously yelled out "Bladebot SYNC!"

Akane and Tomoko's Type-X became Scarlet Devil, Hatate and Himawari's White Razor was back, and Yui and Chitose had the Dark Moon.

However, Akari and Chinatsu's Type-X was doing something unusual, as was Kyouko and Ayano's.

"Hmmm…." Miraisei brought up their monitors and was surprised at the readings, "Wh-whoa! They're both getting over 100% sync!"

Their Bladebots began to change shape, armor plating was shifted around, and instead of being merely docked at the "waist", the Bladebot's docking was not so easily seen. It looked like the two Bladebots had quite literally fused together. This was the case for both Akari and Chinatsu, as well as Kyouko and Ayano.

"This is…A perfect sync!?" Akari exclaimed, looking at the new combined Bladebot.

"I see…" Kyouko replied, "It's 'cause we're so much in love, Ayano!"

"B-baka!" Ayano yelled.

Miraisei smiled, "She's actually right! This type of sync… it's only possible thanks to you two producing so much Emotion Drive power and being on the same wavelength. It's precisely because you're so in love that this happened! We've never seen it before because you four have never synced up before."

Akari smiled, "Alright! We've got an army to defeat!"

"Well spoken, Protagonist!" Kyouko agreed.

The four combined Bladebots, lead by Crimson Lance and Phantom Rose, began mowing through enemies.

"Let's clear a path!" Akari called out, blasting away numerous Blacksabres.

"We'll clear the way, straight towards that big guy!" Kyouko yelled, Slashing at them with an arm-mounted blade.

"And once we do…" Yui added, punching straight through three Blacksabres at once.

"We'll kick his ass!" Hatate finished, firing a bunch of rounds at their enemies.

Tetsuya and Miraisei, standing by in the Master Shogun and the Endless Spark, respectively, looked on and waited for the combined Bladebots to clear a path towards the General's Blacksabre.

Suddenly, however, Haru jumped into the fray too, and Tetsuya groaned in frustration.

"Haru! You're not in a position to fight! Get back here!" Tetsuya yelled.

"You have my back, right? I want to help to. Besides, it's good to have something to take my frustrations out on."

"_Frustrations…" _ Tetsuya thought, angry, _"She's using them as PUNCHING BAGS! She's angry at herself for not asking Nana sooner, so now she's taking her anger out on enemies when she can't even fight… or… or is that it!? She's using them to beat herself up! She's fighting them even though she know she can't, because she wants them to attack her! No, she'll die like that!"_

"HARU!" Tetsuya yelled, launching forwards towards the light blue Bladebot.

Haru turned around in time to see Tetsuya's Bladebot strike her bladebot in the face. It wasn't her exactly, and damage done to the Bladebots didn't sync up to the pilot, but the purpose of the punch was clear.

"HARU! GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF DAMNIT!" Tetsuya yelled, "I don't care about what happened last night! I don't even care what happened this morning! You cannot fight in your condition! You nearly got killed earlier, and I'm not about to risk that again! You are going to stay on the sidelines of the battle until it's over, okay!"

"T-Tetsuya-" Haru started to argue.

"I know it seems like I'm being mean, but I'm just really worried about you, okay!" Tetsuya replied, cutting her off.

Haru sighed, "Alright, I'm sorry for causing you so much trouble."

"It's fine," Tetsuya answered, turning to look back at where his sister was "Now I gotta get back so I can help Miraisei-"

Just then, the General's Blacksabre moved incredibly fast. It had rushed past the four combined Bladebots and charged straight for Miraisei.

"W-what!" Miraisei yelled.

"YOU ARE OZU MIRAISEI, THE LEADER OF THE RESISTANCE…. YOU WILL DIE HERE!"

The Blacksabre thrust it's large claw forwards, directly into the Endless Spark's cockpit.

Miraisei yelled out in pain, and then fell silent entirely.

"WITH THIS, THE RESISTANCE WILL FALL HERE TODAY!"

All around them, the remaining Time Agents yelled out and cheered, as if they had won, and even the Resistance members admitted defeat in their heart.

On that day, in that moment, Ozu Miraisei, Kickass Leader of the Resistance, was impaled by General Armaldol.

* * *

**AN: Welp. That just happened. Too bad too, I liked Miraisei. Also, I thought Haru was supposed to die in this one... I wonder why she's still alive.**

**(If you couldn't tell, I'm pretending I didn't just write this and am as surprised as you are.)**

**Anyway, what's going to happen next? Not even I know.**

**Heh, of course I do. I've already started writing it. I've planned out this story from start to finish, da ze!**

**Well, most of it, anyway.**


	16. Episode 16: The Fight is Over!

**_**Disclaimer: I do not own YuruYuri or any associated characters. The original characters that appear in this story are of my own creation.**_**

* * *

**Episode 16: The Fight is Over!**

The battlefield was deathly quiet. The Time Agents had stopped cheering, and the giant Blacksabre was standing ominously over Miraisei's Bladebot.

Every single member of the Resistance was at a loss for words. This was Miraisei, their leader, the woman who was always fired up and ready for a battle. She was their will and spirit and resolve poured into one person. She was the badass who could fight Blacksabres bare-handed. she was the one who drove the Resistance to greatness.

Now, she was silent.

Hatate hovered her hand over the button to monitor her Bladebot. If she was truly dead, not even the Emotion Drive would pick up anything.

She pressed the button hesitantly and looked at the Endless Sparks data. 0% power output.

Hatate's own heart sank, and her Emotion Drive stopped producing enough power to sustain the combination. Her Bladebot and Himawari's Bladebot were forced apart.

Tetsuya's Bladebot, as well, dropped in power output, and he let it collapse to the ground.

"We've… we've lost…" Tetsuya spoke. It was barely a whisper, but everyone heard him, and they all believed the same thing in their hearts.

"Who the hell told you you could all give up?"

Everyone looked up in amazement at the Endless Spark. That's where the voice had just come from, and it was most definitely Miraisei's.

Hatate looked at the monitor for Miraiasei's Bladebot and smiled. Her Emotion Drive was producing power again.

"Hey, asshole!" Miraisei mocked, looking up at Armaldol's Blacksabre, "If you're gonna impale me, don't miss all the important organs!"

She used her Bladebot's stubby claw arms to rip off the large clawed hand that impaled her and tossed it aside.

"W-WHAT!? IMPOSSIBLE!" Armaldol yelled, jumping back so he wouldn't get damaged more.

"Just as I thought!" Miraisei yelled, "All you are is a phony! You've got this huge army, but they're all pretty weak! And that giant Blacksabre of yours is also just for show! It's big, but it's no stronger than an actual Blacksabre!"

"H...HOW DARE YOU CALL ME A PHONY!" Amraldol yelled, "TIME AGENTS! ATTACK HER!"

"Hey, Tetsuya, How about we give these guys the ol' Ozu Family treatment, da ze?!" Miraisei asked.

Tetsuya smiled, "Alright!"

Tetsuya's Master Shogun lept into the air and transformed, then combined with Miraisei's Endless Spark.

"A 100% Sync!" Miraisei yelled, "These lovebirds have nothin' on us, da ze!"

Their combined Bladebot, the Master Spark, charged forwards at the wall of Blacksabres approaching them. However, Tetsuya's blade crackled with energy and let lose a powerful shockwave, destroying many of them and busting through their defenses.

"Get your damn lackeys outta the way!" Tetsuya yelled.

"I'LL JUST HANDLE YOU MYSELF!" Armaldol yelled, attacking the oncombing Bladebot.

The bladebot was faster, however, and ducked away from the second claw before Tetsuya swung his sword around to cut that off too.

"W-WHAT!"

"There, Tetsuya," Miraisei called out, "Aim for the cockpit, I have an idea!"

Tetsuya reached out with Master Spark's hand and grabbed Armaldol's Blacksabre's head. Aiming for just the cockpit part, Tetsuya swung and sliced it open without damaging any of the Blacksabre's components.

"A-AH!" Armaldol yelled as his Blacksabre fell backwards. He scrambled to climb out of it, and when he looked up, he saw Master Spark looking down angrily at him.

"H...Ha! You… you wouldn't attack a defenseless old man, now would you?"

Miraisei opened up her damaged cockpit, and for the first time, the extent of her injuries could be seen by the Resistance. Her left arm was bleeding heavily, and she had a bandage made from her torn shirt tied tightly around her abdomen, which was also bleeding. Still, she looked ready to fight, and she smiled, "Maybe not with a Bladebot!"

She jumped from the Bladebot and lunged at Armaldol. She landed in front of him and punched him really hard in the face, sending him flying backwards.

"Damn woman!" He yelled, pulling the sword from his cane and pointed it at her. "Fine, I'll fight you!"

Tetsuya!" Miraisei called out, "Your sword!"

Tetsuya nodded and opened his cockpit, tossing her a katana with a black sheath. She caught it and unsheathed it, then blocked Armaldol's first strike with it.

"Think you can beat me, old man?"

"I'll just aim for where I hurt you before!" He yelled, aiming his sword at her bleeding torso. However, as he charged at her, she activated her Resolve, and his blade broke upon contact.

"W-what!?" he yelled.

"Sorry, Armaldol!" Miraisei yelled, "But this is the end of the line for you!"

She quickly stabbed the man in the chest, and as he yelled out, grasping at the blade, she kicked him off of his fallen Blacksabre. His body disintegrated before he hit the ground.

Holding up the bloody sword to the sky, she smiled, "See this, Time Agents! I'M OZU MIRAISEI! KICKASS LEADER IF THE RESTISTANCE! AND THIS IS THE POWER OF MY SPIRIT!"

The remaining Time Agents on the battlefield, having witnessed their General's defeat, began retreating, leaving the Resistance to watch victoriously as the battle came to an end.

Tetsuya came out of his Bladebot to stand next to his sister, and he smiled, "We finally captured one!"

Miraisei nodded, "It's a bit cumbersome because it's so large, but because we killed Armaldol without destroying the Blacksabre itself, it's not going to dissolve."

Tetsuya looked over at his wounded sister, "You okay?"

"I feel light-headed, and I bled all over the inside of my bladebot… what do you think?" Miraisei answered.

"Fine then?" he smiled.

She smiled back, "Heh, yeah… Hey…"

"Hmmm?" Tetsuya answered.

"Do me a favor and carry me back to the base, I think I'm about to pass out from blood loss."

Tetsuya rolled his eyes as she collapsed, and he grabbed her.

"Always a pain to deal with… come on, sis. Let's get you back before you really do die."

* * *

Hatate sighed. It had taken a while, but she finally finished stitching Miraisei up. Her leader was unconscious, but she had been given a transfusion and was in a stable condition.

"She's fine, right?" Tetsuya asked, leaning against the doorframe.

Hatate smiled and nodded, "Your sister, to have fought in that condition…. your sister is really something, Tetsuya."

Tetsuya nodded, "She gives a lot of credit to the Ozu Family bloodline, but to be fair, she's pretty amazing in her own right. I probably couldn't do half the things she does."

Hatate leaned back in her chair, "We're dating, you know?"

Tetsuya nearly lost his balance and fell backwards, but caught himself, "When did this start?"

"Just this morning," Hatate smiled, placing her hand on her chest, "When I saw her cockpit impaled, I was so scared that she was actually dead."

"Same here," Tetsuya replied, "Anyway, good luck."

"Hm? Good luck?" Hatate asked, confused.

"You're dating my sister now, you're gonna need it!" Tetsuya laughed.

And with that, Tetsuya tucked out of the room, and it was only the two of them them once again.

* * *

Haru took a deep breath and knocked on Nana's door.

When Nana opened the door, Haru smiled at her with an expression Nana couldn't read.

"Haru, what is it?" Nana asked, "Are… you going to confess?"

"I… I saw you and Rise last night, and I wanted to say…. I'm happy for you two." Haru replied, shaking her head. Even as she said this a few tears pooled in the corners of her eyes, "I really am! A-and I support your relationship! So… so don't worry about me, alright!"

Nana's eyes widened, but she nodded and smiled.

As Haru turned, she couldn't help but let the tears flow. Even then, she was smiling. Maybe she wasn't over Nana yet, but she'd be happy for her friend.

Nana sighed, but then called out, "Hey, Haru… I've been a bit distant because I didn't want to unintentionally lead you on… I'm sorry about that. I'll try to be a better friend, alright!"

Haru smiled and nodded, "Alright!"

* * *

Kyouko and Ayano were standing in front of Ayano's house, holding hands, and Ayano's heart was pumping in her chest.

"Are we really going to tell them?" Ayano asked Kyouko.

Kyouko smiled, "I want your family to accept me too, alright! If they don't agree with it, you can always run away and live at the base."

Ayano glared at her girlfriend, "That's not very encouraging, you know!"

Kyouko smiled, scratching the back of her head, "Sorry, sorry…"

Ayano took a deep breath and entered the house, Kyouko following behind. Her mother was sitting on the couch, reading a book, and her father was sitting in an armchair, a laptop in hand.

"Ayano… oh, Kyouko! Ayano, you didn't tell me you were having a friend over!"

"Uh… Mom… Dad… I… I want to reintroduce Toshino Kyouko to you… as my girlfriend!" Ayano announced, blushing bright red, looking down, and closing her eyes, "I…. I know you might not approve! But… I really love her, okay! We've… we've been through a lot together, and I decided I'm not going to hide it anymore! I don't care if you don't accept it!"

Kyouko grasped her girlfriends' hand and waited for a response.

Ayano's parents looked at each other, and then they both started laughing.

Both Ayano and Kyouko were taken aback by this response, and neither were sure if the laughter was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Uh… Mom… Dad?" Ayano asked.

"Ayano… we knew you were dating Kyouko for a while now," her mother replied.

"We've even bet to see how long it would take you to tell us. I guess I owe your mother 5,000 yen now." her father added.

Ayano's jaw dropped, "W-what!?"

Kyouko, by this point, started snickering too, "See, I told ya there was nothing to worry about!"

Ayano, once she got over her shock, smiled, "Well, It's not the response I expected, but I'm glad things worked out like this."

* * *

Akari and Chinatsu had decided to head out to dinner at a nice restaurant. It was one they seldom frequented, mustly due to it's pricey food, but also due to it's distance from their area. Still, the Resistance had given them a decent sum of cash to "Do something nice" for themselves.

And so, they were sitting across from each other at a table, waiting for their food.

"Hey, Akari?" Chinatsu spoke, breaking the comfortable silence they had been in before.

"Hmm?" Akari looked up.

"What do you think of all this?" Chinatsu asked.

"What? You mean the Resistance?" Akari asked, trying to understand Chinatsu's question.

"Yeah… I mean, Miraisei nearly died earlier… that could realistically happen to any of us, and yet… you don't seem too worried about that happening." Chinatsu pointed out.

Akari smiled, "It's true that it's dangerous, but you forget, I'm the protagonist, and the protagonist doesn't die!"

Chinatsu frowned, "But sometimes, the protagonist dies at the end… and even then, this isn't an anime or a story or anything like that! This is real life. There's no guarantee you'll live at all."

Akari nodded, "I know that, but look at it this way, our positive emotions and our Resolve… these are the things that give us power. If we lose heart, if we lose our will and get discouraged, then there's no way we'd possibly win! So even though it's dangerous, as long as we push forwards and never give up, we'll be fine in the end, because we'll make sure we won't die, alright!"

Chinatsu nodded, "I understand now! Here I was, getting discouraged because I was worried about something like that happening to you or me, but if I think like that, then of course it'll happen! Because I won't have enough strength to stop it!"

Akari smiled, "I'm glad you get it. That's what Miraisei told me when I talked to her about this whole thing the other day."

Chinatsu's eyes widened, "N-no fair! I thought that you came up with that on your own!"

Akari laughed, "Don't worry, the protagonist always makes great speeches, I just haven't gotten a chance to yet!"

* * *

Himawari looked at Sakurako, who was sleeping peacefully.

"You missed a lot to day, you know?" Himawari whispered.

Sakurako, who she thought was sleeping deeply, opened her eyes.

"I saw what happened to Miraisei," Sakurako replied.

Himawari nodded, "She's fine now, though."

Sakurako threw her one working arm around Himawari's neck and pulled her close. Himawari felt something wet on her chest, and looked down. Sakurako was crying.

"H-hey, it's alright, Sakurako, everything's fine now!" Himawari consoled, patting her girlfriend's head.

"I… I don't want to lose you, like you almost lost me," Sakurako replied.

Himawari nodded, "It's fine, Sakurako…"

"Just wait, Himawari! Soon, we'll both be fighting together! I'll have your back, and you'll have mine!"

Himawari smiled, "Right!"

* * *

Akane and Tomoko were sleeping over at the latter's house, and the two relaxing and drinking tea while watching the night sky.

Akane sighed, and Tomoko looked over at her friend.

"What's wrong?" Tomoko asked.

"It's nothing…" Akane replied.

"Oh come on, You had a huge siscon crush on your sister for the longest time and I found out about it. I'm pretty sure I'm going to find out about whatever it is that's bothering you…"

Akane grinned, "Fine… I have an awesome friend… she's probably one of the only people who really understands me… and for the longest time I've been ignoring her because I've been in love with Akari…"

Tomoko, for all her cleverness, still wasn't sure where this was going, so she motioned for Akane to continue.

"Anyway, I think I'm starting to fall for her, but I'm not sure I should tell her, because I still kinda like my sister, and I guess it would feel like I'd be using that person as some sort of rebound or I wouldn't be able to actually love her like I should, and it's frustrating because she's pretty amazing, and cute too."

Tomoko had figured it out, but she decided to play along.

"Tell me more about this amazing, cute person you're falling in love with," Tomoko grinned.

"Well, she's got pink hair, she's sitting right in front of me, and she's fishing for more compliments." Akane smirked.

"Shut up, stop worrying, and kiss me!" Tomoko ordered, politeness and timidness long-since discarded.

Akane was happy to oblige.

When they broke the kiss, Akane placed her fingers on her lips and hummed.

"So, we dating now?" Akane asked.

"You just kissed me, you tell me," Tomoko replied.

Akane looked up, "Wait, so… if you and I are dating, and our younger sisters are dating, what happens to them when we get married first?"

Tomoko blushed, "Ma-marriage!"

Akane laughed, "You're right, we can worry about that later."

Tomoko nodded and leaned against her new girlfriend. She had been wishing for this moment for so long now that it felt almost unreal.

"_This is what true victory feels like."_

* * *

**AN: Fooled ya, didn't I? Notice how I never once explicitly stated Miraisei died in the last chapter. Anyway, Now that the Resistance has a Blacksabre, things could get very interesting. There's a lot they could find out about the Time Agents with that.**


	17. Episode 17: The Three Remaining Generals

_**Disclaimer: I do not own YuruYuri or any of the associated characters. All other original characters that appear in this story are of my own creation.**_

* * *

**Episode 17: The Three Remaining Generals! A New Chapter Begins!**

Tetsuya stood at the front of the meeting room, waiting for everyone he had gathered there to settle down. Once they had, he began.

"It's been three days since the battle for Kyoto, and the Time Agents haven't attacked since. We've been able to use this time to study the captured Blacksabre and analyze its database. Miraisei's still recovering, so I've been designated as acting leader until she fully recovers, so I will explain to you what we found in her stead.

First, we've gathered enough X Alloy off of the giant Blacksabre to integrate into our Bladebots. This effectively means that you'll be able to use your Resolves while piloting. This, however, is not the most important issue."

Tetsuya brought up a slide on the monitor. It was a vertical chart, with arrows pointing upwards. At the bottom was the face of Armaldol, which had been crossed out. Above him was a question mark, then there was the name Lobos, then another question mark, and then finally at the top was the name Chronolith.

"From what we can ascertain from the data gathered, Armaldol was the first of four Elite Generals, and was the lowest ranking one. Lobos is also an Elite General, but there seems to be a General between him and Armaldol, and another above him. The last one, Chronolith, is a name that has shown up before, but there was little information on him. This time, however, we can ascertain from the files present in the recently captured Blacksabre that Chronolith's the main culprit behind the Time Loop, as well as the leader of the Time Agents. We must assume he has control of time, and he is vastly powerful. Chances are, we will have to beat the remaining Generals to even get close enough to touch him."

"So, three more to go, then?" Kyouko asked.

Tetsuya nodded, "We can safely assume these Generals will get harder to beat, so yesterday's battle was only the beginning of our struggle. Our battles from here on out will only get tougher and there's no guarantee that you guys will survive them all. I will say this; if you want to back out, do so now. From here on out, we'll all need to stick together, so if you don't back out now, you'll have to stay with us until the end. You've already joined the Resistance, but may be a bigger task than what you had in mind at the time. I will give you three days to make your final decision."

Kyouko grinned, "Doesn't matter to me, I've already made up my mind! I'm sticking with this until the end!"

Ayano nodded, "There's no point in backing down after the battle three days ago."

Himawari smiled, "I want to fight to protect the people I care about. There's no way I'd back down now!"

"I want to help with everything I can," Chitose replied, "I'm not the best fighter, but I want to help!"

"This kind of suits me," Yui replied, "I might not seem like it, but I appreciate the thrills of this kind of life."

"Rise and I are always willing to lend a hand," Nana replied. Rise nodded in confirmation.

"I think backing out now would be cowardly," Chinatsu added.

"Yeah," Akari affirmed, "Besides, it's love that powers the Emotion Drive! There's no way we'd back down after becoming so strong!"

Tetsuya smiled and nodded, "I gave you guys three days, but I guess you've already made your decisions… huh? Alright! From here on out, the Resistance will be stronger than ever!."

* * *

Chronolith looked down at three shadowed figures bowing before him.

"Elite Generals, three days ago, the Time Agents had suffered a grave defeat at the hands of the Resistance! I say no more!" Chronolith bellowed, "For too long they've evaded my efforts. For too long they've defeated my Agents…"

"I am a rank above Armaldol," one of the figures replied in a feminine voice, "Please allow me to pursue the members of the Resistance and kill them."

"You are the weakest General strength-wise," Lobos, who was standing beside her, replied, "But you're intelligence and stealth might give you the upper edge. Still, the Resistance isn't sloppy. If you can't perfectly conceal your position, the Resistance will eventually hunt you down and defeat you like Armaldol."

She turned and snapped at Lobos, "Don't compare me to that old geezer! He was sloppy and careless, and he thought he could bring down the Resistance with sheer numbers alone! How foolish!"

"SILENCE!" Chronolith replied, "Very well, Elite General Wyvrin, you may attempt to defeat the Resistance in any way you see fit. You will be assigned a squad and-"

"I'm not going to use a squad… you see, they'd only get in my way."

Chronolith was silent for a few moments, but then replied, "Very well. You will be sent alone to take care of the Resistance. Report back to me nightly how you are progressing with your mission."

* * *

"Lobos," Wyvrin spoke as they left the throne room, "Can I trust you?"

"Wh-what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Lobos yelled.

"You are a human who refuses to cast off his humanity," Wyvrin replied, "Also, you are the youngest among the Elite Generals right now. Can I really trust that you won't betray us?"

"I have a grudge against Ozu Tetsuya, the Resistance leader's brother and it's second-in-command." Lobos replied.

"Why? What did he do to you?" Wyvrin asked in an almost mocking tone.

"He let someone important to me die," Lobos replied, "It was his fault! He didn't protect that person hard enough, and they wound up dying... I tried to save them too, but he was older than me! He's supposed to be the member of this so-called 'great Ozu family', but he couldn't even protect one person! How am I supposed to forgive him for that!?"

"So, this is why you hold a grudge against him, for doing something not even you were able to?" Wyvrin asked.

"SHUT IT! You know nothing of what happened, and I don't feel inclined to tell you anymore! I don't care what it takes, I don't care if I have to sell my soul to the devil himself! I will get revenge on Tetsuya! As long as I can fight him again! As long as I have a chance to kill him, I'll give up anything! But even I have my pride. I want to fight him on equal terms. That means all the regenerative abilities and superhuman strength of a Time Agent's body are no good! That's why I won't give up my human body! It's to kill Tetsuya in battle on equal grounds!"

"Then you have the spirit of a warrior," Wyvrin answered.

"Yes," Lobos returned.

"It's fools like you who disgust me! Fighting on even terms? Ha! Why not steal everything away from your enemies in the dark? What honor is there in being honorable if it leads to your death? I stay out of my opponents vision and attack them when they're defenseless. This way, there is no possible way they'll be able to fight back. With a strategy like mine, I cannot lose!"

Wyvrin started walking away, but Lobos smiled, "You will lose to these people, then. It doesn't matter how cunning you are, you will always be one step behind them. That's the kind of people they are."

Wyvrin frowned and turned away, "I won't save Tetsuya for you. For a moment, I was considering letting just him live, so you could have your petty revenge by killing him yourself, but now, if I find him, I'm definitely killing him."

As she left, Lobos gritted his teeth.

_"I'm willing to give up everything... huh? Then why can't I forget that girl... Funami Yui... why can't I get her out of my mind! All she did was take care of me when I had a slight fever... but..."_

Lobos turned around and punched the wall.

_"NO! I won't lose sight of this goal now! I don't care what this Funami Yui or anyone else in the Resistance thinks of me, I will kill Tetsuya!"_

* * *

Akane was reading a book in the living room, within earshot of the television her father was watching, when she overheard a particularly dark news report.

"Attention, residents of the local area! A series of mysterious murders took place earlier today at around 16:00 this afternoon. The three victims had very little in common, but each of them had similar injuries,leading local police to believe they were all murdered by the same person. The police have yet to release any information regarding a potential suspect, but they believe that the perpetrator is still in this area. We advise you to take extra care when going out alone, and urge you to stay indoors at night. We will continue to provide updates of this investigation."

Akane frowned. She had been so used to the Resistance that she had nearly forgot about normal people that went around killing. She herself couldn't remember a time a serial killer terrorized their small town.

No matter to her or her friends, though. They all had Resolves and Bladebots. A normal human would be taken completely off-guard by such things, and she doubted anyone would be in too much danger.

Still, to be safe, she mentally made a list of the people who hadn't awakened their Resolves yet.

"_There's Kyouko, but she's most always with Ayano or Yui, who both have Resolves already… Akari has a Resolve as well, so she can protect Chinatsu. I don't know if Chitose has a Resolve yet, but she hasn't mentioned anything of the sort, so I have to assume no. Himawari doesn't either, so they have to be extra cautious. I'm not sure about Nana and Rise either, but since they've been training at the base a lot, I assume they do. Either way, we'll have to be a bit cautious, but I don't think the murderer will become much of a problem. The police will catch them soon enough."_

Still, even while thinking that, Akane got a bad feeling in her gut, and she couldn't shake it off all night.

* * *

**AN: Last Episode was pretty much the end of the "Introducing the Resistance" Arc (if you'll let me call it that). This is the beginning of a new Arc, and it's not going to be as actively action-y as the last one. Expect a lot of psychological warfare and mystery-solving in this upcoming Arc, because that's the kind of person Wyvrin is.**


	18. Episode 18: The Mind Games Begin

**_**Disclaimer: I do not own YuruYuri or any associated characters. The original characters that appear in this story are of my own creation.**_**

* * *

**Episode 18: The Mind Games Begin - Katsu's Time to Shine**

A woman with long, black hair and bright blue eyes glanced around the town. In her hands she was carrying a couple of bags, with the logo of a nearby convenience store. She was making her way towards a small apartment building. To be more precise, it was the apartment building owned by Yui's relative. She had recently rented an apartment there, and even she couldn't remember the exact room number. She pulled out her key and checked the number written on it.

"Room 4, that should be on the first floor, then…"

As she made her way to her room, she hummed a tune to herself. Anyone nearby would notice that, even while humming, she kept a perfect tune, and had a wonderful voice.

As she entered the room, she put the bags on the table and began putting away the refrigerated goods.

"_It's been a day since I moved to this peaceful town… It's nice and quiet here. There's not much going on. There are only four schools in this town, a normal grade school, two sex-divided junior high schools, and a high school. There aren't many tourist attractions and the town's not very significant in it's own right, so it's perfect for living a peaceful life."_

After she finished putting away the food, she flicked on the news and watched it blankly. They were covering a story about two new murders that occurred recently.

"_That's right, even though it's a peaceful town, I seem to have picked the worst time to move here. Now a new serial killer is on the loose. Everywhere I went today, people who realized I was new here told me I was rather unlucky. I'm a young, single woman with a temporary job at a cafe here until I can manage to find a longer-lasting job. In other words, I'm the most likely target for a serial killer like that."_

She continued to listen to the news story. One of the victims was an old man, in his 80s, who was the owner of a flower shop nearby. The other was a young girl in high school. There were no connections between the two, and they were found dead in opposite sides of town. Still, they both had similar wounds, though police were not disclosing these exact injuries.

"_Still, I'm not worried. A killer only attacks people who stand out. Even if it's a sentence, even if it's something irritating to annoy the killer, a psychopath won't attack someone they don't notice. My goal in life is exactly this; live a normal, unnoticable life. I want to be a person that people walk by without being noticed. I don't have any abnormal hobbies, I'm really intelligent, but I never did exceptionally well in school, I graduated from a no-name university with a rather boring major, and I never win any competitions I enter. My name is Kashiwara Orin, and I just want a boring life."_

* * *

When Katsu entered the police station, he was entering familiar territory. After all, he had aspired to become a forensic scientist back in the day, before he joined the resistance. It had been his major, and even in Kyodai, they considered his forensic work absolute genius.

Chess might have been his hobby, but investigation was his passion.

So when Tetsuya asked him to position himself at the police station as a forensic scientist, he jumped at the chance immediately.

* * *

_**Yesterday**_

"Tetsuya, you wanted to see me about something?" Katsu asked, leaning into the Food Court. Tetsuya was sitting by the counter, holding a cup of coffee and nothing else.

Upon spotting Katsu, he stood up and handed the man a folder, "This is a recently released police report about a suspected serial killing in the town where many of our new members live."

"So?" Katsu started, "Serial killers are normal people. Don't tell me the Resistance is gonna start playing superhero and saving everyone?"

Tetsuya shook his head, "No, nothing like that… but this seems a bit suspicious. The Time Agents have been rather inactive as of late. Even the number of weaker Agents has gone down since the battle. I'd like to consider that a victory on our part… but the fact that they aren't doing anything seems a bit too conveniently timed with the arrival of this serial killer."

"Do you really think the serial killer is a Time Agent?" Katsu asked.

"I don't know. It definitely doesn't seem like them. Time Agents like to be clean and swift. They usually don't leave evidence behind. Least of all evidence this blatant," Tetsuya stated, "Either way, the more information we have about this, the more sure we can be that the serial killer is just a normal person."

"So," Katsu began, "You want me to go undercover at the precinct and investigate to provide you with inside information?"

Tetsuya nodded, "Precisely. It's better if we know more about what's going on, and inside information might be vital."

Katsu smiled, "I wouldn't turn down a job like this even if there wasn't a good reason for it."

"I had a feeling you would say that," Tetsuya replied, "Oh, and watch your back. A lot of Serial killers aren't very direct, but we don't know anything about this one. If they find out you're investigating them, it might make you a target."

Katsu nodded, "Stay safe, got it!"

As Katsu turned to leave, Tetsuya sighed and sat back down. Even if the serial killer was just a normal person, they'd cause trouble if they went after members of the Resistance.

* * *

"Ah, is that you, Katsu-san?" An older officer approached the man and smiled, follow me.

They went into the Forensics lab at the station and looked around at the various scientists and police officers present.

"May I have everyone's attention for a moment?" the man spoke up, "This man here is Shimazaki Katsu. He's the son of one of my old friends, and he's a genius. I want you to treat him with as much respect as you'd treat me, you understand?"

Everyone gave a "Yes sir" and returned to their work. Katsu was quickly approached by one of the scientists, a young woman with short red hair and square-frame glasses.

"It's nice to meet you, Shimazaki-san," she spoke, "My name is Kuno Suika, from this point forwards, I will be your assistant investigator."

"Ah, It's nice to meet you too, Kuno-san," Katsu replied.

"I assume you're going to want some of the details. You can read the full files later, but I'll give you a brief summary. The three victims yesterday- a young woman, a female high school student, and a middle-aged man- were all found in different locations throughout the town, none of them were related in any way, and their estimated times of death are all 5 minutes apart. It's a similar story with the two new victims…"

"So," Katsu began, "The only thing that links them together are their injuries?"

"Yeah," Suika replied, "Each of them had their throats slit at the carotid artery, a small incision barely 5 centimeters long, and their hearts removed and placed in their hands. The hearts are removed with surgical precision, and none of the ribs are damaged. All very clean kills."

"A doctor, then?" Katsu asked.

"Not one from this town," Suika replied, "It was obvious that the killer had some medical training, so we checked all the doctors at the nearby hospital, and all of them have solid alibis."

"Even the ones with night shifts?" Katsu asked.

"Clever, since the murders occurred during the day, you'd think maybe the doctors who work at night wouldn't have solid alibis. However, there are only two doctors in this town who work nights, and both of them were with family at the time of the murders. Furthermore, one of them is clearly visible on a surveillance camera at a convenience store, and the other one was one of the victims."

"W-what?" Katsu was taken aback. One of the victims was a night-shift doctor. "But wouldn't the killer realize their style would raise suspicions on doctors? Why would they get rid of a potential suspect… unless…"

"Unless they're mocking us," Suika replied, "Their victims seem to be completely random, but the one doctor who wouldn't have had a solid alibi otherwise was killed. It's like they're saying 'I know you think I'm a doctor, so I'm going to prove you wrong'... What's worse is the complete lack of evidence otherwise. No hair, no fibers, no footprints, no fingerprints… nothing to trace back to the killer."

Katsu placed his hand on his chin and frowned.

_"The more I hear about this killer, the more I'm inclined to bring them down! They're issuing to me a challenge! No evidence, clean crime scenes… even if the murderer is not a Time Agent, I still want to put them behind bars."_

"Kuno-san," Katsu began, "Tell me, have you ever played chess?"

* * *

**AN: So, we are introduced to two new characters, Kashiwara Orin, a normal woman who wants a boring life, and Kuno Suika, a forensic scientist partnered up with Katsu to help solve this crime.**

**This part of the story is going to be very different, and is going to be heavily focused on Katsu's efforts to bring the killer to justice. It's a temporary shift, we'll get more straightforward action after this Arc, but I wanted to give the other characters some down time as well, to focus more on their relationships and whatnot.**


End file.
